The men's and women's track teams took a total of 11 individual first-place finishes at the Wesleyan Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 15. A week later, the men took sixth and the women fifth at the Tufts Invitational. "The hard twice-a-day training the team endured throughout Interterm appears to be paying off, as many team members were able to put together some great performances," said Shauneen Garrahan '07.

Men's Track

The men placed first and second in five events at Wesleyan. Mike Page '05 led two Amherst sweeps in the 1500- and 3000-meter runs. Matt Katz '05 and Tomas Morrissey '08 came in second and third, respectively, in the 1500. Likewise, co-captain Dave Molina '05 and Cooper Knowlton '07 finished two-three in the 3000-meter run.

The duo of John Babbott '07 and co-captain Jack Morgan '05 took one-two in the 800-meter, while Evan Guiney '06 and Robert Boley '07 pulled off the same results in the 5000-meter.

The 4x800-meter relay was also a success for the Jeffs, as the relay team of Morrissey, Babbott, Ben Read '08 and Molina beat the relay of Katz, Morgan, Billy McNitt '06 and Rom Cabeza '08 by less than eight seconds.

At the larger Tufts meet, the men's team finished among the top half of the competing teams with 55 points. Repeating his distance dominance from the week before, Page took home the victory in the 3000-meter run. The men had a trio of third-place finishes with Morrissey in the 3000-meter, Sam Hayman '07 in the 500-meter, and Jon Ettinger '07 in the 200-meter. In the 4x200-meter relay, Geoff Stricsek '07, Ettinger, Tim Porter '06 and Steve Shashy '08 combined forces to power their team to a second-place finish.

Women's Track

The women matched the men's fine performances at the Wesleyan Invitational with six individual victories. Garrahan took first in the 800- and 1500-meter runs. Co-captain Carter Hamill '05 followed Garrahan with a second-place finish in the 1500, and led a one-two finish with Alison Rodriguez '05 in the 3000-meter run. Hannah Campbell '07 grabbed first in the 200-meter run and third in the 55-meter dash, while Ginger Polich '07 raced to an impressive first-place finish in the 1000-meter run.

The women also took first and second in the 4x800-meter relays, with stellar efforts from the team of Laura Mortimer '08, Lauren Benson '08, Polich, and Rodriguez, followed by the team of Katie Moravec '08, Sophie Turrell '08, Garrahan and Lucy Sheehan '08.

With a total of 58 points, the women placed fifth at Tufts. The team's two individual wins came from Polich in the 800 and Garrahan in the 1000 run. Polich and Garrahan took home another victory when they teamed with Lyndsey Scott '06 and Heather Wilson '08 in the distance-medley relay, which provisionally qualified them to compete at the NCAA Championships in March. Moravec placed third in the 3000-meter run, while Campbell had a superb performance in the 55 and finished fourth.

"Because of the snowstorm several of the teams left without running the final relays," Polich said. "The women's distance-medley relay team was really excited about its overall time and glad to have stuck around."

Amherst will return to action this weekend at the Terrier Classic hosted by Boston University on Friday and Wesleyan's Cardinal Invitational on Saturday.