The track teams bracketed their Feb Breaks with meets, competing in the Tufts Stampede & Multi on Saturday, Jan. 31 and the Dartmouth Indoor Classic on Saturday, Feb. 7. The teams originally planned to host a meet in the new Virtue Field House on Jan. 31, but construction delays led to a last minute change of plans and a trip to Medford. Despite these delays, the teams have continued to perform well, breaking school records and recording individual victories in competitive fields.
At Tufts, the women were led by Maddie Pronovost ’17, who took fifth in the pentathlon with a school record score of 2897. The events in the pentathlon include the 60m hurdles, the high jump, the shotput, the long jump, and the 800m, and an athlete’s mark in each event earns a certain number of points. The highest total score wins.
“Knowing that I have good events and bad events takes pressure off me, because I know that if I do not do well in one event, I can make up for it in another event,” Pronovost said of the pentathlon. “This makes competing much more fun, because there are so many events to test your athleticism in.”
Alex Morris ’16 continued her comeback, winning the 600m in a time of 1:41.21 with her teammates, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Kate McCluskey ’18, not far behind, taking third and fourth with times of 1:42.18 and 1:43.30, respectively. In the mile, Erzsie Nagy ’17 led a Panther stampede, winning the event in 5:12.22 while leading Robin Vincent ’18 to a second place finish in 5:13.90 and Sarah Guth ’15 to third just two hundredths behind Vincent. Katie Carlson ’15 joined the winners club, taking the 5000m in 18:03, more than 14 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. The final winner of the day was Hannah Blackburn ’17, who leaped 16’7.75’’ in the long jump, a half-foot farther than her nearest competition.
Sam Cartwright ’16 paced the men at Tufts, winning the mile in 4:20.70. Sam Klockenkemper ’17 was right behind to complete a Middlebury 1-2 finish, racing to a time of 4:21.06. Nick Blelloch ’16 recorded his first collegiate victory by taking the 60m hurdles. Blelloch ran a personal best of 9.12 seconds in the trials to be the third fastest qualifier and smashed that best by running 8.95 seconds in the final, edging out two Tufts runners. Other strong performances were turned in by Will Bain ’15, who took third in the 60m by running 7.20 and Kevin Wood ’15, whose 5000m time of 14:53 was good for third as well.
A week later, the teams convened at Leverone Field House at Dartmouth College. The women’s day was highlighted by the 3000m. Alison Maxwell ’15 won the event in a school record time of 10:10. Adrian Walsh ’16 — making her track debut as a Panther — finished third in 10:16 and was followed closely by Vincent and Nagy, taking fourth and fifth in times of 10:17.88 and 10:17.91. Rookie Brianna Bisson ’18 ran her best race of the year to finish fifth in the 1000m, recording a personal record of 3:05.16. Summer Spillane ’15 made her indoor debut by taking third place in the mile with a time of 5:16.
On the men’s side, Cartwright took home his second victory in as many weeks, this time winning the 1000m in 2:31.53, the second fastest time in Middlebury history.
“I’m not really used to running the 1000,” Cartwright said. “It was my second time ever running it, so I basically hung back and hoped for a fast race.
Kevin Serrao ’18 continued his strong rookie year by taking third in Cartwright’s race with a time of 2:32.08. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 — who missed the previous week’s race due to his Feb graduation — was the second place finisher in the 3000m, finishing in 8:42. Luke Carpinello ’16 was second in the 800m by running 1:58.75, finishing just a hundredth of a second ahead of a Williams competitor.
The teams will travel to Boston this week to compete in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 13 and 14 for one of the biggest meets indoor meets in the country. The combination of BU’s blazing fast banked 200m track — nicknamed the Launching Pad for the fast times it has produced.
