Women
In their first scoring meet of the season, the Jeffs placed third out of five and featured many striking individual performances.
Continuing to display impressive talent and poise at the collegiate level, first-year sprinter Jade McKnight won the 200-meter dash in 27.95 seconds. Also competing in the 55-meter sprint event, McKnight placed 4th with a time of 7.89.
The middle-distance events were also a strong point for Amherst. Mary Doris Reggie ’10 and Susan Wasserman ’11 took the top two spots of the 600-meter race, finishing within one-hundredth of a second of each other. Hoiwan Cheung ’10, Keri Lambert ’13 and Zoe Pagonis ’11 finished the 800-meter run in third, fifth and seventh places, respectively.
Standing out with stellar races in the 1,000-meter and mile events was Melissa Sullivan ’12. Her time of 3:01.87 in the 1,000 earned her second place, and her 5:08 mile time earned her a first-place finish.
Racing the familiar cross-country distance, Sophia Galleher ’10 won the 5,000-meter with a time of 18:49. Less than a second behind her was Ali Simeone ’13, and Shannon McKenna ’12 took fifth place in the race with a time of 19:12.
Racing at Wesleyan University in a non-scoring event the following week, the Jeffs returned with force. McKnight tackled the 400-meter distance, finishing sixth of 28 with a time of 1:03.32. Also competing in the event was Caroline Darmody ’10, who ran 1:09.83.
Sullivan won the 600 in 1:41.22 and Wasserman placed second in the 800 with a time of 2:25. Simeone finished less than two seconds later and claimed fourth place. Cheung, Lambert and Pagonis finished the 1,000 in first, third and fifth places, respectively.
Amherst runners dominated the 1-mile event, as first-years Simeone, Lauren Almeida, Sarah Daly and Elodie Reed took the top four spots. Eliza Schalch ’12, McKenna, and Kristen Moulton ’13 finished 10 seconds later in 10th, 11th and 12th places.
“I think our showing at Wesleyan displays how much depth the Amherst women have in the distance events,” said Reed.
Laura Zaccagnino ’12 broke the 11-minute mark in the 3,000, running a 10:59 and earning 3rd place. Melissa Pritchard ’11 won the 5k with a time of 19:20.
In the shot put event, Jordan Roehl ’12 recorded a distance of 10.60m, placing seventh out of 42.
Reed added, “Though we were coming off of three weeks of very intense training, I thought Amherst made quite a good showing at both the Brandeis and Wesleyan meets. With some rest and backing off, the team should see great things come the bigger, end-season meets.”
Men
At Brandeis, the men finished in third place of seven teams overall, trailing only Southern Maine University and Bowdoin College.
Standing out in the short sprint events, sophomore Spencer Russell ’12 qualified for the 55m finals, where he placed 4th with 6.96.
Sending a significantly larger field to the 400-meter race, Amherst placed six runners in the top 12. Andrew Reed ’12 led the Jeffs with his 3rd-place finish in 51.60. Following him over the next 3 seconds were Tommy Moore ’11, Thebe Tsatsimpe ’11, Andre Gary ’11, Larry Thompson ’10 and Keith Pendergrass ’10.
First-year runner Patrick Grimes ’13 captured second place in the 800m run. His 2:00.33 was just .19 seconds behind the winning time of 2:00.14.
A pair of cross country runners took the top two spots in the 1,000-meter run, as Ben Scheetz ’12 and Adron Pitmon ’13 placed 1st and 2nd in 2:32.93 and 2:34.38, respectively. Several more of Amherst’s harriers tacked the one-mile race, as Kit Callahan ’10 earned fifth place, Daniel Murner ’10 took 7th, William Bell ’10 claimed 10th, first-year Andrew Erskine ’13 placed 12th and Travis Cohoon ’11 grabbed the 17th spot. All five milers ran below 4:45.
Murner, Erskine and Cohoon also competed in the 3,000-meter run. Although Murner trailed winner Devon Holgate by less than half a second, the Jeffs sent three men through the line in the top 10 overall.
Also worth noting was Amherst’s 4x800-meter relay team, which finished in 1st place out of eight teams. Comprised of sophomore Chris Erickson and juniors Michael Dolmatch, Ryan Drost and Christopher Eaton, the team ran an 8:04.38, which was six seconds ahead of the 2nd-place Southern Maine team.
Tsatsimpe, who competed in the 400, also dominated the long jump. His distance of 6.48m earned him a 1st-place finish in the event’s field of eight.
The team finished with 105 points, trailing Southern Maine and Bowdoin for a third-place finish. The Jeffs finished ahead of Brandeis, Emmanuel College, UMass Boston and Lasell College.
The men’s indoor track team moved next to Wesleyan University, where it raced last Saturday in a non-scoring meet.
Ofori Amponsah ’13 continued to impress, as he placed 5th in the 55-meter sprint, and Reed and Tsatsimpe earned 6th and 10th places. Junior Will Yochum ’11 won the 3,000-meter race with a time of 8:33.77, and John McGrail ’11 followed with a second-place finish 15 seconds later. Finishing 10th in the same event was Kevin Hanley ’11, who ran a 9:21.64.
The Jeffs sent eight runners to the one-mile race, seven of whom placed in the top 11 of the field’s 38 total runners. Murner won the race in 4:25.35, and junior Jack Seaver ’11 placed second just five seconds later.
Three runners placed in the top 10 in the 800- and 1,000-meter races. Notably, Pitmon and senior Jimmy Swanson ’10 earned 3rd- and 4th-place spots in the 800, while Bell grabbed the 3rd spot in the 1,000 with a time of 2:36:35.
The men’s and women’s teams will next compete at the Boston Indoor Games this Friday.