The track teams were in action this past weekend in the final round of meets before the NCAA Championships. Several Panthers were making last-ditch efforts to qualify for the NCAA meet while others sat tight and hoped they were not bumped by other competitors around the country.
The top 15 men, top 17 women and top 12 relays in each gender that declare for the NCAA meet qualify. A group of runners was sent to the Tufts Final Qualifier on Friday, March 6 and another group elected to compete at ECAC Championships at the Armory in New York City on March 6 and 7.
After the dust settled, the men qualified one individual and the women qualified four individuals and one relay team for the NCAA meet.
As has been the case for the last few years, the Tufts Final Qualifier was a disappointment for the Middlebury competitors. Kevin Wood ’15 was third in the 5000m, running 14:57.17, which was not an improvement on his indexed best time of 14:46.42, a time leaving him ranked 23rd — ultimately not good enough to get into the Big Dance.
The men’s distance medley relay of Sam Cartwright ’16, Alex Nichols ’17, Luke Carpinello ’16 and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 finished seventh by running 10:11.74; again, not an improvement on their indexed time of 10:06.09, ranking them 17th and leaving them on the outside looking in.
Down at the Armory, Hannah Blackburn ’17 broke her school record in the pentathlon by scoring 2931 points, good for seventh place in the ECAC.
“Every pentathlon is different, and this one started off poorly with high jump,” Blackburn said, “but then I actually learned how to run an 800, so that was good. Plus there were only a few of us at the meet, so it was also a great opportunity for bonding before the spring break trip.”
Kevin Serrao ’18 concluded his successful rookie campaign by running 1:55.79 in the 800m to finish 11th. Also in the 800m was Addis Fouche-Channer ’17, who ran 2:23.67 to finish 17th. Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 made his last indoor high jump as a Panther, clearing 1.92m (6’3.50”) for a 12th-place finish.
This year’s NCAA Championships will be held at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, NC, on March 13 and 14. Schaaf was the lone Middlebury male to qualify for the meet,and will be running the mile for the second year in a row. He is seeded eighth this year and looks to improve on his ninth place finish last year in Lincoln, NE.
For the women, Alison Maxwell ’15, Summer Spillane ’15 and Sarah Guth ’15 will all run the mile and are all seeded for All-American positions, entering the meet as the second, sixth and eighth seeds, respectively.
Adrian Walsh ’16 is seeded 13th in the 5000m, an event she finished ninth in last year while competing for the Hamilton Continentals. The distance medley relay squad of Maxwell, Alex Morris ’16, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Erzsie Nagy ’17 is seeded sixth. The Middlebury DMR finished seventh last year after a third place finish in 2013 and victories in 2011 and 2012.
