Women
At the end of the day, the women tallied an impressive 153 points and dominated the three final events of the meet. Zandra Walton ’09 helped kick off the day by finishing first in the 800 at 2:22.63. Fellow Jeffs rounded out the top five times — Molly Priedeman ’09, Carly Levenson ’09, Mary Doris Reggie ’10 and Susan Wasserman ’11. In the 1000, Amherst saw four runners — Hoiwan Cheung ’10, Zoe Pagonis ’11, Eliza Schalch ’12 and Mariana Palacios ’09 — get NE Div. III qualifying times to finish within the top eight.
A talented Amherst trio went on to capture the first, second and third places in the 5000. Tri-captain Elise Tropiano ’09 took first with a time of 17:47.71, followed closely behind by Sophia Galleher ’10 (18:15.35) and Hallie Schwab ’11 (18:17.32).
The Jeffs had another impressive performance in the 4x400 relay. Wasserman, Priedeman, Reggie and Levenson breezed past the competition for an easy victory with a time of 4:10.07. Schalch, Kate Silverman ’09, Melissa Sullivan ’12 and Walton clinched the last win of the day for the Jeffs in the distance medley relay (12:58.84).
In the throwing events, Jordan Roehl ’12 recorded 11.64m in the shotput, which earned her second place and qualified her for the ECAC Championships. Roehl then went on to take sixth place in the weight throw at 12.06m.
Men
The men showed great success in the long distance events, taking first place finishes in the 600, 800, 1000 and 5000. Steve Stewart ’09 and Tommy Moore ’11 took first and second, respectively, in the 600, while first-year Ben Scheetz proved once again in the Tufts Invite that he is not just any rookie performer. Scheetz won the 800 at 1:57.21, marking his third victory in as many races this season and improving upon his personal record. With a time of 2:33.78, Jimmy Swanson ’11 claimed first place in the 1000 and Steve Corsello ’11 was right at his heels to finish second at 2:34.17. Senior tri-captain Peter Foote and Will Yochum ’11 also went 1-2 in the 5000.
The Jeffs’ 4x400 relay team finished second, with Chris Erickson ’12 joining tri-captain Anthony Fuller ’09, Ryan Drost ’11 and Andre Gary ’11 for a time of 3:35.42. In addition, Corsello, Moore, Scheetz and Swanson teamed up for the distance medley to take a solid third place (10:36.20).
Foote was pleased with the meet’s results and is optimistic about the rest of the season. “A lot of the guys were on their game this weekend, and look poised to run some very fast times when the level of competition increases. I think we will have some ground-breaking performances as the training continues to pay off over the next few weeks.”