The track teams have started their seasons with a trio of scored meets: the Ross & Sharon Irwin Meet at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) in San Diego on Mar. 21, the PLNU Collegiate Invitational on Mar. 28 and the Middlebury Invitational on Apr. 3 — the first meet hosted by Middlebury in two years. Though team scores are unimportant at this point in the season, the teams were able to showcase their depth. The men garnered second, third and first place finishes, respectively, while the women took first, fourth and second.
Erzsie Nagy ’17 placed second in the 1500m at the Irwin meet with a time of 4:34.32, starting her outdoor season on a level on par with her anchor run as part of Middlebury’s All-American distance medley relay at the NCAA Indoor National meet. Nagy’s time was the best in NCAA’s Division III rankings for two weeks, and has since moved to the second-place spot.
In the men’s 1500m at the Irwin meet, Sam Klockenkemper ’17 and Sebastian Matt ’16 turned in impressive personal record times. Klockenkemper took third overall with a time of 3:54.69, and Matt finished right behind in fourth, clocking a 3:55.79.
The PLNU Invitational held later that week was particularly notable due to the Panthers’ strong conference and regional competition from New England powerhouse MIT, and NESCAC foes Williams and Colby.
Alex Nichols ’17 put his injury woes behind him in the 400m, finishing sixth with a time of 50.19 as the third NESCAC athlete across the line. Jake Wood ’15 placed third in the 400m hurdles, running 55.24 in his first try at the distance this season. Tyler Farrell ’18 finished sixth in the same event with a 56.54.
On the women’s side, several women put in impressive perfomances. Sasha Whittle ’17 finished second in the 5,000 meters with 19:01.64, and there was a trio of fourth-place efforts from Catie Skinner in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (11:58.8), Alex Morris ’16 in the 400 meters (59.57), and Nagy in the 800 (2:16.8).
Rookie Devin Player ’18 also impressed on her Panther outdoor debut. Player recorded a throw of 131’9” in the javelin to earn her fourth place. The throw is currently the best in the NESCAC and in the top 10 nationally. Carly Andersen ’16 followed with two top-five finished in the discus (120’8”) and the javelin (127’6”).
Back in Vermont on the afternoon of the Middlebury Invitational, the weather was reminiscent of Southern California. Despite tired legs from a week of hard training during spring break, the Panthers performed well.
Most notably, Ian Riley ’16 heaved the javelin 59.10m (193’11”) to win the meet — his first of the season — by 5.01m. Riley’s throw was a 4.24m personal best and places him as the fifth farthest javelin thrower in Middlebury’s history.
Though often overlooked in track and field meets, the javelin has historically been one of the Middlebury men’s strongest event: Bryan Black ’02 and Khristoph Becker ’06 won the javelin throw at NCAAs in 2002 and 2005, respectively, as the Panther men’s only NCAA national champions. Both won these titles under the tutelage of current Coach Luke Hotte. Riley’s throw has him sitting 12th in Division III, and would have ranked him 21st last year — just one spot out of qualifying for NCAAs.
“I think the biggest contributing factor was that my whole family came up for Easter weekend and decided they’d try to make the track meet as well. My two younger brothers always make things more fun, which keeps me relaxed. I also have an incredible throwing coach who does his very best to put up with me, and my ‘technique,’” Riley said.
Aside from Riley, Hannah Blackburn ’17 won the 100m hurdles, running a 15.37, and threw the shot put 10.72m to take third place. Blackburn is making the transition to becoming a heptathlete, and this is her first year throwing the shot. In Blackburn’s first try this year, she threw 8.91m but has turned a weak event into a strong one. She is currently ranked fifth in the NESCAC in the shot and third in the 100m hurdles.
On the men’s side, Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 was victorious in the 110 meter hurdles in a NESCAC season-best time of 15.20. Other events winners for the Panther men came from Mikey Pallozzi ’18 in the 200m, Nichols in the 400m, Kevin Serrao ’18 in the 800m, Chony Aispuro ’18 in the 1500m, Kevin Wood ’15 in the 5000m, and Jake Wood in the 400 hurdles and both relay teams. Overall, the Middlebury men won the meet handily, scoring 214 points to second-place Springfield’s 163.
Following the home meet, Riley, Shortsleeve and Player were all named NESCAC athletes of the week, with Middlebury taking three of the conference’s four weekly honors.
The teams will next travel to Williams to compete in the Dick Farley Invitational on Apr. 11 where they will race against Williams, SUNY-Oneonta, RPI, and Vassar. The ever-important NESCAC Championships will be held at Williams two weeks later on Apr. 25.
