Track Keeps Pace at DIII New Englands

On Friday and Saturday May 2 and 3, a portion of the track and field team headed south to Springfield, MA, with the sun shining for the first meet in some weeks, to compete in this year’s Division-III New England outdoor championships.

The Panthers sent over forty athletes to the meet, and emerged from the three day affair with a number of All-New England honors, including one all-region title and a new school record.

On the women’s side, Alison Maxwell ’15 once again led the Panthers when she claimed the victory in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:36.84. Teammate Katherine Tercek ’16 also earned all-region honors in the same event when she took seventh in 4:42.82.

Other all-region honorees included Alex Morris ’16 with a sixth place finish of 58.38 in the 400 meters, Katie Rominger ’14 with a second place finish of 17:39.00 in the 5,000 meters, and Jackie Kearney ‘16 with a sixth place finish of 1:05.08 in the 400 hurdles. Summer Spillane ’15 took fifth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 10:59.38, while Abigail Pohl ’17 was seventh in 11:22.81.

In the field, Maddie Pronovost ’17 finished seventh in the heptathlon with a total of 3,387 points and Laura Strom ’14.5 took sixth in the high jump with her mark of 5’ 4.25”. Lauren Pincus ’14 finished in fourth in the javelin with a toss of 131’ 7”, while Hannah Blackburn ’17 took third in the long jump when she posted a mark of 18’ 2.5”, a jump that broke the standing Middlebury outdoor record in the event.

“My goal for the day was to get a [personal record] and get closer to qualifying for NCAA’s,” Blackburn said. “When I had my good jump, I definitely freaked out a bit; I was really excited. Right now I’m ranked 25th in the [country] for long jump and the top 22 go to the NCAA championship meet, so my goal for the next two weekends is to jump farther.”

On the men’s side, Jason McCallum ’14 finished in second place in the pole vault with a mark of 15’ 3”. In other field event action, Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 cleared the high jump bar at 6’4” to take eighth place.

On the track, Jake Wood ’15 and Kevin Chu ’14 both took home all-region honors in the 400 hurdles with their sixth and eighth place finishes, posting times of 54.88 and 56.27, respectively. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 managed a second place finish in the 1,500 meters when he crossed the line in a time of 3:54.56. Teammate Sam Cartwright ’16 was behind him in fifth, running 3:56.40, while Sam Klockenkemper ’17 finished in eighth with a time of 3:57.55.

Sebastian Matt ’16 also posted an eighth place finish in the 5,000 with his time of 15:40.10. Bryan Holtzman ’14 led the sprinters as he crossed the line in 11.06 seconds in the 100 meters, good for a sixth place finish, while recently crowned NESCAC Rookie of the Year Alex Nichols ’17 tied for a seventh place finish in the 200 with a time of 22.40.

“It was almost 70 degrees at the meet and I think we were all just really happy to be able to compete in the warmth for once,” Blackburn said of the day as a whole. “Everyone had a really competitive meet and there were a lot of season bests.”

Although the primary focus was on individual performance after a team push last weekend at the NESCAC championship, the Panther squads managed to stack up well against the other D-III teams in the region. The men’s team took eleventh in a field of 32 teams, while the women finished in fourth out of 33.

Head Coach Martin Beatty and Assistant Coaches Nicole Wilkerson, Kurt Fischer, Bill Edson and Luke Hotte continued their success after claiming the NESCAC Men’s Track & Field Coaching Staff of the Year.

“We didn’t necessarily try to do well in this meet as a team,” Beatty said. “It’s more about the individual icing on the cake. We didn’t even run the relays, so we didn’t attack this meet like we did NESCACs. That’s our emotional high point, and we don’t want to burn out the athletes.”

The championship meet season continues this weekend with Open New England’s at Westfield State. About fifteen Panther athletes are expected to compete alongside DI and DII competition. Those who do will return to action on May 9 in the final push to qualify for a spot at NCAAs.