Author: Erich Kahner
While the majority of the Middlebury Indoor Track team's season ended a few weeks ago, several panthers are still on the prowl. Last weekend a handful of Middlebury athletes took to the track at Tufts' Gantcher Center to compete in the Open New England Championships. Seven Middlebury women joined a field of 43 teams — including many Division I schools — and over 450 athletes.
Among the highlights of the meet was junior Michela Adrian's victory in the women's 5000-meter race with a time of 17:20.02. Adrian and Maura Danahy of Connecticut College made it a two-woman race as they broke away early from the rest of the pack. The race came down to the wire with Danahy staying on Adrian's tail as long as she could, but Adrian put on a furious surge during the last lap to dispense of Danahy, beating her by a slim margin of .56 seconds.
"The last 200 was really fast," Adrian said of her blazing final lap. "We ran it in 37 (seconds)," which is, notably, on pace for a 4:56 mile. Adrian's time was the second fastest ever run by a Panther and made her an automatic qualifier for indoor nationals on March 8.
The women's distance medley also had a strong showing. The team of Meredith Bazirgan '02, Maryanne Porter '04, Adri Logalbo '03 and Molly Yazwinski '04 placed eighth against very speedy competition.
Although their time of 12:26.45 fell just short of qualifying them for nationals, they still have another shot this weekend when they travel back to Tufts for Eastern College Athletic Conference championship.
The women can qualify provisionally if they are among the 12 fastest in the nation, but distance coach Nicole Wilkerson thinks that with the stiff competition this year, they may have to best the automatic qualifying time of 12:08 to guarantee them a trip. "We have to go automatic. It's likely that 12:08.3 won't even get us in."
With this gutsy group of women on the track, a trip to nationals is definitely in the picture.
Andy Boyer '02 was the lone representative of the men's track team to qualify for the post-season, and participated in the 55-meter high-hurdles last weekend, making strides toward becoming competitive at the national level. Other competitors at New England's were Jess Kosciewicz '04 in the 200-meter and Hannah Huegel '04 in the long jump.
Adrian Rocks Competition at New England Championships
Comments