GORHAM, Maine -- The Little East Conference announced Monday afternoon that two members of the University of Southern Maine women's indoor track and field team, sophomores Ariel Howes (Farmingdale, Maine/Hall-Dale) and Molly Carl (York, Maine), had been selected for weekly accolades for their performances at last weekend's ECAC Division III Championships in New York City.

            For the second straight week, Howes has been named the Field Athlete of the Week and Carl was the recipient of the Rookie Track Athlete of the Week.

            At the ECAC Championships in New York City, Howes finished third in the pentathlon with a personal best total of 3,053 points to improve her NCAA provisional qualifying mark, and also posted a career best time of 1 minute, 19.59 seconds in the 500 meters.  In the three field events that are part of the pentathlon, Howes cleared 1.47 meters (4-9 3/4) in the high jump, tossed the shot 9.73 meters (31-11 1/4) and had a mark of 4.54 meters (14-10 3/4) in the long jump.  In the two running events, she had a time of 9.27 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles and ran the 800 meters, the final event, in a personal best 2:21.95 to be the first competitor across the line.

            Carl ran the opening leg (1200 meters) of the Southern Maine school record-setting distance medley relay team that posted a time of 12:11.62 en route to a 10th place finish, and just missing an NCAA provisional qualifying time at the ECAC Championships.  The next afternoon, she ran the anchor leg, including a sub-33 second last 200 meters, of the Huskies' winning 4 x 800-meter relay. Southern Maine crossed the line with a winning time of 9 minutes, 32.41 seconds.

            Howes and junior Bethany Dumas (Augusta, Maine/Cony) were provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships.  Neither was among the competitors to make the women's field that was announced earlier in the day.