Women's Track
Even though they placed eighth as a team with 45 points, the women started and ended their meet on good notes. "For the women, the distance runners, hurdlers and steeplechasers fared extremely well as they scored us quite a few points and posted numerous [personal records] which was exciting, and then the 4 x 800 team finished the day with a win," said Coach Erik Nedeau.
However, the women's team simply lacks the depth and overall talent to compete with the NESCAC's most elite team, Williams College, which finished in first place with 226 points. Tufts University finished in second place with 150 points.
The first event of the meet was the 10,000-meter. Carter Hamill '05 took a very close second place, lowering her own school record by thirty seconds and automatically qualifying for NCAAs. First-year Margaret Davis placed seventh in her debut at the event.
At the end of the meet, Aly Venti '04, Ginger Polich '06 and tri-captain seniors Kate Hamill and Laurel Kilgour ran an excellent 4 x 800-meter relay. Each woman ran an outstanding leg, and the team took home the day's only first-place finish for the team.
Polich had already performed well on her own. She bettered her own freshman record and snatched fifth place in the 400-meter hurdles.
Impressive performances were also exhibited in the middle of the meet. Junior Erinn White finished third in the 5000-meter, with freshman Jenny Horowitz following in seventh.
Alison Rodriguez '05 ran under rain and over water pits in the steeplechase. Despite the elements, she placed fifth and set a new personal record.
Venti ran a good time in the 1500-meter and took seventh place. In the triple jump, first-year Lyndsey Scott also took a seventh place finish. Scott was joined by classmates Haney, Kristen Reid, and Kristine Morin on the sixth place 4 x 400-meter relay team.
Morin placed eighth in the 100-meter hurdles and also helped the team score additional points with another eighth-place finish with tri-captain Alison Stahl '03, Haney and Julia Rucker '06 in the 4 x 100-meter relay.
Men's Track
The men placed eleventh overall at NESCACs but had some good performances. Williams College won the Championship with 135 points. Tufts and Bates rounded out the top three.
"The men's 4 x 100 raced awesome as they grabbed 3rd, and Page and Stanton-Geddes in the 5,000-meter and Nick Canevari in the throwing events were the bright spots," said Nedeau.
In the 4 x 100-meter relay, the men had a surprising third-place finish. Jason Wagstaff '05, Janak Chandrasoma '04, tri-captain Brian Hart '03 and Nathaniel Mahlberg '05 were seeded eighth going into the race, but the team quickly negated their seed with great hand-offs.
Sophomore Mike Page ran his best race as a college student. In the 5000-meter run, he lowered his personal record by almost thirty seconds while taking third place. Katz was proud of his teammate. "Mike Page finally had a chance to show how good shape he was in," he said. Behind Page was John Stanton-Geddes '04, who finished in fifth place.
The 4 x 400-meter relay team, Chandrasoma, Mahlberg, Hart and Jack Morgan '05, managed to knock time off their relay from the previous week, even with the tough conditions. In the 10,000-meter, Katz and Zeke Phillips posted good times in their event debuts.
First-year Nick Canevari had a good day on the field. He finished seventh in the discus, nearing the freshman record. Then in the shot put, Canevari set a personal record by two feet.
Coach Nedeau is optimistic about the remainder of the season. "Things are looking good-the last couple of meets are the ones that we are gearing up for, and hopefully things fall into place with training and racing and those who are still competing take advantage of the work that they have done," he said.
As of right now, it appears that Carter Hamill will be the only Lord Jeff to compete at Nationals. She will run the 10,000-meter and 5,000-meter.
Next weekend the men and women will be going their separate ways for the Div. III New Englands. The women will be running at Williams for their second week in a row, while the men will travel a bit farther to compete at Bates College in Maine.