Last week at Heps, junior Nicky Grant finished a disappointing third in the 20-pound weight throw.

"You have good days and you have bad days," Grant said after the meet.

Yesterday, Grant had the best day of her career.

At the ECAC championships, she unleashed a throw of 18.20 meters that buried her own personal-best, school-record throw of 17.76 by nearly half a meter. It was just short of the Heptagonal-record throw of 18.21 meters by Yale's Melanie Harris last week.

Grant's throw was good enough for 31st on the national performance lists and second place against the ECAC competition. She was three centimeters short of the first-place throw. Harris, meanwhile, finished just seventh at 17.04 meters.

Against the tough ECAC competition, co-captain Brenda Taylor and sophomore Helena Ronner were the only other Crimson athletes to place.

Taylor--who won two sprints and the hurdles at Heps last week--finished fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.99 seconds. Taylor's time of 54.64 seconds from February had placed her 30th on the national performance lists. Taylor will be positioned much higher in the national rankings this spring in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles--her premier event in which she was an Olympic Trial semifinalist this summer.

Co-captain Marna Schutte--the Heptagonal champion in the 400--finished in 56.03 and fell just short of qualifying for the event's final.