In the world of professional wrestling, the best storylines are the ones that are built up over time. The same can probably be said about the world of college sports, as the friendly rivalry between the Little IIIs, Williams College, Wesleyan University and Amherst is very real.  This week, the men's and women's track teams participated in the Little IIIs, at Williams.

The men saw finished third with 101 points. The Jeffs recorded strong finishes in the distance, sprint and relay portions of the meet. 

Although the 4x100m relay team showed impressive speed on the track, less than perfect handoffs cost the team a win against Williams. More disappointing though, the 4x400m team of Co-captain Rob Long '01, Janak Chandrasoma '04, Brian Hart '03 and Co-captain Jared Moshe '01 was also plagued with baton problems from a dropped baton after position jockeying and lost in the final moments to a strong Ephs line. However, Amherst was close to three seconds ahead of their personal best, with all four legs running sub-50-second splits. "In many respects it was a breakthrough meet for us," Chandrasoma said.

Jacob Cooper '02 set a personal best in the 800m with a time of 2:01.76, making this the fourth consecutive meet he has improved in this year. Mike Page '04, who ran both the steeplechase and the 5k and threw the hammer, had an extremely long day yet managed to pull off an impressive steeplechase and finish the 5k in quick fashion only two hours later.

Pat Hayes '03 was the team's sole winner, capturing the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.46.

"Now it's time to focus on taking advantage of our training and excelling at the championship meets," said Long.

The women also performed better than their third-place performance of 80.5 points suggests. In particular, Amherst was hurt by its comparatively small team.

"Though the Williams team is over twice, maybe even three times, our size, we knew we'd be very competitive on the individual level, numbers aside. We make our presence felt through the quality, not quantity, of athletes on the team," said Tri-captain Amie Shei '02.

Helen Dole '04 was all over the track, participating in seven events in preparation for her first outdoor heptathlon next week. She performed especially well in the 100m hurdles and long jump.

In the 400m, Shei ran a season- best time to finish third, followed closely by Rebecca Woo '02. Another versatile athlete, Alison Stahl '03, finished third in the long jump to go along with her performances in the 100m and 200m.

Next week's two-day NESCAC meet marks the beginning of the qualifying meets and the end of the regular season.