Track Teams Excel at Dartmouth Invitational Erich Kahner

Author: Tim McCahill

Middlebury's indoor track and field team resumed major competition last Sunday for the first time since May at the Dartmouth Invitational.
Many Panthers showed little sign of any accumulated rust. Adri Logalbo '03 tallied 4.5 of the women's team's six points -- four for her fourth place finish in the 800-meter dash and one-half point for her share of fifth place in the distance medley relay. Logalbo was only one of four (including Allie Williams '05, Melissa Thacker '05.5 and Megan Gambino '06) who contributed to the relay's finish.
The men also had strong showings from their relays. The distance medley relay (Nick Dagani '05, Jon Erwin '05, Erich Kahner '05 and Tom Icard '06) and the 800-meter relay (Greg Lazerus '06, Kevin Bright '06, Brendan Sullivan '06 and Liam Aiello '05) scored two points apiece. The 800-meter relay underwent a last-minute personnel change due to the injuries of Dom Di Domenico '06 and Mike DeLeo '03, but alternates Bright and Sullivan handled the tricky 4x200 meter relay's baton exchanges with relative ease.
With the results from a meet in the books, coaches and athletes now have some precedent to formulate clearer expectations for the season.
"It's great to finally have a meet under our belt," said Head Coach Martin Beatty. "The Dartmouth meet is a starting point that lets us know what we need to improve on, to build upon."
Beatty cited methods of warming up for races and race strategy as two things that require attention. Sunday saw a few athletes pushing the pace too hard early on in their races and feeling the consequences later on as opponents overtook them. Identifying a postive side of this, Beatty said, "With further training, we count on the athletes' fitness catching up with their determination."
The Dartmouth Invitational is the largest non-championship meet of the year on the east coast. Athletes from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as many elite club teams from Canada, Boston and other conglomerate areas, competed this year.
Last year, Adam Nelson, silver medalist in the shot put at the Sydney Olympics and Darmouth alumnus, made an appearance and smashed the meet record.
According to Logalbo, the pageantry of the Invitational did not overwhelm the team. "Based on the attitude of this team, I think this season stands to be a good one," she said. The team looks to expand upon the lessons learned at Dartmouth in practice this week and at next weekend's St. Lawrence Invitational.