The track teams traveled to Williamstown, Mass., on Saturday, April 11, to compete in the Dick Farley Invitational hosted by Williams College on a blustery New England spring day. Though the meet was not scored, the Panthers raced against Williams for the second time in three weeks. Also participating were RPI, Southern Vermont, SUNY-Plattsburgh and SUNY-Oneonta. The women’s team won four events and the men came home with three event victories.
Rookie Natalie Cheung ’18 notched her first collegiate victory, winning the 200 meters with a time of 26.75, and was one of just two competitors to break the 27-second barrier. Teammate Alex Morris ’16 was third in the race with a quick time of 27.12.
Cheung’s Middlebury career has taken off since moving out of field houses and armories and on to outdoor tracks.
“It was difficult training for the indoor season because of the delay with the field house, and we could only practice at UVM once a week, limiting our amount of conditioning,” Cheung said. “Now that we have the indoor track, and finally some warm weather, the whole team has been improving. I definitely did not expect to be winning races as a freshman, so Saturday was really exciting for both my coach and me.”
Hannah Blackburn ’17 was a two-time victor on Saturday, winning the 100-meter hurdles by running a collegiate-best time of 15.21 and winning the long jump by leaping 5.18 meters. Jackie Kearney ’16 was second to Blackburn in the 100 hurdles by running 15.85.
The fourth victory came from Devon Player ’18, who won the javelin with a heave of 39.87 meters. Carly Andersen ’16 took second by throwing 37.86 meters. Like Cheung, the victory was the first of Player’s career as a Panther.
Other notable results included Halle Gustafson ’16 running personal bests in the 400 meters and 200 meters of 61.13 and 27.53 to finish second and sixth, respectively, Erzsie Nagy ’17 running 11:24.52 for third in her first attempt at the 3000-meter steeplechase, Lauren Bougioukas ’16 finishing second in the 800 meters in 2:21.42 and Paige Fernandez ’17 taking second in the 400-meter hurdles in 65.98.
On the men’s side, relays provided two of the three event victories. The 4x100-meter relay team of Sam Rives ’15, Jeremy Carter ’17, captain Fritz Parker ’15 and Will Bain ’15 cruised to victory with a time of 43.51. The 4x400-meter team closed out the day with a victorious time of 3:31.28.
Jake Fox ’15 was the lone individual winner of the day, finishing first in the 5000 meters in 15:17.14. Teammate Kevin Wood ’15 took second by running 15:21.34. Fox and Wood worked together for the entirety of the race, a smart tactic given the conditions.
“The race unraveled marvelously,” Fox said. “I had no time goals for the race, as the wind was fierce throughout the day. To my dismay and extreme pleasure, a kind Williams athlete with an evident propensity for altruism decided to break wind for Kevin Wood and me for approximately 9 laps. We passed him with 900m to go and accelerated into the last half mile. Kevin gave me the inside lane in the final 200m and utilizing the strength honed during my winter training with the vertical alpine gang (an up-and-coming trail-running/adventure team at Midd), I grunted like a feral pig and gunned it to the finish in 15:17. I couldn’t have done it without Kevin, as he pulled me through the last half mile.”
Jared Whitman ’17 jumped 4.27 meters in the pole vault — the same height as the winner — but took third place on misses. Ian Riley ’16 was second in the javelin with a toss of 50.30 meters.
The teams will be off to SUNY-Albany on Saturday, April 18 for their final meet before NESCAC Championships on April 25 back at Williams.
