Eastern Connecticut State University

Judith Pemberton Bell was the most accomplished sprinter in the first 29 years of the women’s track & field program. The first female to achieve NCAA Division III All-America honors in program history, Pemberton Bell qualified for NCAA Division III national competition a total of five times in three events in her two-year career: twice at 200 meters, twice at 400 meters and as a member of the 4x100 meter relay team. Three times at the national meets, she ran to All-America honors, which were based on a Top 6 finish in that competition. As a freshman in 1983, she placed fifth at 200 meters and sixth at 400 meters. As a sophomore in 1984, she repeated All-America honors by finishing third at 400 meters and was also seventh at 200 meters (six-hundredths of a second shy of All-America laurels) and sparked the 4x100 relay team to an 11^th-place finish. As a sophomore in 1984, Pemberton Bell won the New England Open championship at 200 meters, as well as the ECAC title at 400 meters. As a freshman, she was fifth at 400 meters at the Open. To date, the Norwich native is among only five individuals to be named All-America in either the men’s or women’s program, and is the program’s only female to achieve All-America status in a running event. At the time of her induction, the program records that she established at 200 (25.28) and 400 (56.44) meters and in the long jump (17-5 ¾) and as part of the 4x100 relay (49.35) have withstood the test of time, with the 4x400 relay record of 4:16.3 standing until 2004.