Track & Field Teams Set for NESCACS on Saturday

With the cancellation of the Panther Spring Invitational due to unfavorable weather, the Middlebury track and field team had one less opportunity to participate in a full-scale meet in preparation for the upcoming conference championships. Three of the Panthers, Kiera Dowell ’20, Rebecca Gorman ’20, and Jonathan Fisher ’20, were able to get a bit of practice in by participating in the non-scoring Silfen Invitational on Saturday, April 14.

The Williams Quad Meet last Saturday, April 21, was the Panthers’ last big meet before the conference championships. It was a non-scoring meet, but the Panthers clearly gave it their all, as shown by their impressive performances.

Nathan Hill ’20 affirmed that the Panthers went all out to ensure they were as prepared as they could be for this coming weekend’s meets.

“I think the team gained a lot of confidence from this past weekend,” Hill said. “There were a lot of high-quality individual performances, and there is a sense of unity towards the common goal of winning Nescacs.”

The women’s team had an excellent showing in the 200-meter dash — the top three finishers in the final race were all Panthers. Alex Cook ’20 won with a time of 26.15, while Kate Holly ’21 was only about .2 seconds behind with a time of 26.39. Lizzie Walkes ’20 came in third with a time of 26.54.

Abigail Nadler ’19 and her fellow distance runners continued the Panthers’ dominance of the meet in Williamstown. In the 1500-meter race the top six finishers were representatives of Middlebury.

Nadler finished first with a time 4:40.11, but Kate MacCary ’19 was not far behind, finishing with a time of 4:40.60. A time of 4:43.07 was able to net Anna Willig ’20 third place, and Read Allen ’18, Tasha Greene ’21 and Olivia Mitchell ’20 rounded out the top six.

Both the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams came in first in their races, with times of 49.86 and 4:04.36, respectively. The 4×100 team was composed of Ellie Greenberg ’20, Walkes, Cook and Holly. The 4×400 team was composed of Gretchen McGrath ’21, Langley Dunn ’19, Kai Milici ’21, and Lucy Lang ’19.

Like their counterparts on the women’s team, the men’s 400-meter runners had a great tune-up meet last Saturday — six of the seven top finishers were Panthers.

Jimmy Martinez ’19 and James Mulliken ’18 came in first and second, respectively. Martinez had a time of 48.76, and Mulliken had a time of 49.56. William Robertson ’21 was fourth, Arden Coleman ’20 was fifth, Cam Mackintosh ’20 was sixth, and Matthew Durst ’21 was seventh.

“I think our 400-meter runners are extremely confident going in to next week’s championship meet,” Mulliken said. “We have the strongest group of 400-meter runners in the Nescac, and this group promises to be a strong source of points at the meet. Jimmy Martinez in particular has been running great all year.”

Hill was able to show his balanced approach in the 800-meter and 1500-meter races, both of which he won. In the 800, his time was 1:55.28, and in the 1500, his time was 3:57.25.

“Kevin [Serrao ’18] and James [Mulliken] are two of the top 800 runners in the country, and they know what it takes to compete at the top level,” Hill said. “Jon [Perlman ’19] and Kevin [Serrao] also both scored in the 1500 last year and are ready to improve upon their places this year.”

All in all, the team has many reliable assets that can be depended upon for this Saturday’s conference championship meet.
“The team is confident,” said Hill, looking forward to the conference meet. “The confidence stems from the fact that we have all been working hard over the course of the last five months. Nescacs is a ton of fun and has a very high-energy atmosphere that I think we will thrive in.”

“Our confidence levels have never been higher going into the championship meet,” Mulliken added. “We strongly believe this is our meet to win.”

Hopefully all of this hard work pays off for both the men’s and women’s teams as they get on a bus bound for Williamstown for Saturday’s, April 28, meet.