Track Distance Runners Cruise in Boston

In spite of the pending blizzard, men’s and women’s track and field traveled to Boston on Feb. 13-14 to compete in a pair of meets: the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational and the Gordon Kelly Invitational hosted by MIT. “Valentine,” as the BU meet is colloquially known, is one of the largest meets in the country with over 3,500 athletes toeing the line. Several Olympic medalists have raced in the meet. As such, it is one of the best opportunities for Middlebury athletes to run fast.

The women raced at BU on Friday, Feb. 13 and put up some spooky-good times. Alex Morris ’16 continued to drop time in the 400m, running 59.10 seconds, her first time under one minute this season. In the mile, Erzsie Nagy ’17 ran a swift time of 5:02.95. Two heats later, Summer Spillane ’15 and Robin Vincent ’18 took the top two spots in their section, finishing with times of 5:03.72 and 5:04.34 respectively. Sarah Guth ’15 also ran a strong race, completing the distance in 5:07.22. Many hours later, running after 10:30pm, Adrian Walsh ’16 raced the 5000m, finishing the 25-lap race in 17:32.53.

After a long day on Friday, Nagy, Vincent, and Paige Fernandez ’17 were joined by Alison Maxwell ’15 in the 4000m distance medley relay (DMR) on Saturday morning. The DMR consists of 1200m (Maxwell), 400m (Fernandez), 800m (Vincent) and 1600m (Nagy) legs, in that order. The quartet raced to a time of 11:44.92 — marginally faster than the All-American team the Panthers fielded last year, the third fastest time in school history, and the fastest Division III time in the country in the meet by over 16 seconds.

Nagy said of her weekend, “The double wasn’t bad. I did feel Friday’s race a bit in my legs during the last half of my leg in the DMR. I had no idea what my pace was, and it was nice to know that it felt faster than the open mile because I really was running faster, not just because I was tired … I am so impressed by the mid-distance/distance runners who ran this weekend! We have only done speed work in the pool, and most people still had amazing races! Running an 11:44 certainly wasn’t the plan, but it’s nice to start fresh and get a benchmark that exceeded all of our expectations.”

The mile race highlighted the men’s day. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 set a new school record with a time of 4:09.89, a time that ranks him seventh in Division III according to NCAA track indexing. Sam Cartwright ’16 and Sam Klockenkemper ’17 ran two heats after Schaaf and both set indoor personal bests, clocking times of 4:13.58 and 4:16.86 respectively.

Schaaf’s race was by far his best of the season.

“It always takes me a couple races to figure my swag out,” Schaaf said. “So I never really know how fast I can go until I get into a good heat. I felt like I could run a lot faster than I had before, but I was a little surprised at getting under 4:10.”

In the 800m, Kevin Serrao ’18 and Luke Carpinello ’16 raced to fast times in the same heat. Serrao took second in the section in 1:55.59 and Carpinello was not far behind, finishing in 1:56.74, an indoor personal best.

At the lower-key MIT meet, Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 broke his school record in the high jump by a centimeter, leaping 1.95m (6 feet 4.75 inches).

The teams start the post-season this weekend, competing in the Division III New England Championships on Feb. 21. The women will race at MIT while the men will race at Springfield.