Track and field getting up to speed

Author: Zamir Ahmed

The Middlebury outdoor track and field team got a chance to showcase their talents in front of their friends and family last week as the team played host to Plattsburgh, Colby-Sawyer and University of Vermont (UVM) at Dragone Field. The Panthers put up a strong performance at their home meet, with both the men's and women's teams winning the meet by a comfortable margin. The Panthers also traveled to Massachusetts on April 9 to take part in the Williams Relays. There the team competed against a larger and stronger pool of opponents in a non-scoring competition.

On April 5 the Panthers were led by a couple of dual event winners in front of their home crowd. Co-Captain Nick Digani '05 showed his endurance by taking first in the 800m and the 1500m with times of 2:00.15 and 4:02.50, respectively, while Steve Atkinson '06 captured the gold in the hammer throw with a mark of 40.58m and in the javelin with a throw of 56.40m.

Other notable wins for the men include Kevin Bright '06 in the 400m hurdles and Pascal Losambe '07 with a personal best in the shot put. On the women's side the team racked up a number of first place finishes, among them Lindsey Jones '07 in the 200m, Claire Schultz '07 in the 800m, Elysian McNiff '08 in the long jump and Whitney Creed '06 in the hammer throw.

"The home meet went really well," said Co-Captain Melissa Thacker '05. "People had good performances and a lot of the team set personal bests. A majority of the team went to California during break, where we had a couple of meets, but it was good to have the entire team competing on Tuesday."

On Saturday the Panthers laced up their spikes for the Williams Relays, hosted by NESCAC rival Williams College. "It was hard coming back to race on Saturday after the home meet," said Digani. "We aren't used to running on such short rest. All things considered we ran pretty well."

Three second place finishes led the women in their meet. First-year racer Ceara Danaher took second in the 3000m steeplechase in 11:39.31 while Allison Brown '07 took the silver in the 1500m in 5:19.31 and Mary Fredrickson '07 continued her impressive season start with a second in the javelin.

The men's team was paced by another first place finish by Digani in the 800m, who improved on his time from the home meet by almost four seconds. Five individual second place finishes were as turned in by the men's team. They included Bright in the 400m, Jimmy Butcher '08 in the 5000m and Co-Captain Liam Aiello '05 in the 100m, who Digani described as "running as well as I have ever seen him run."

Although only a few weeks into the season, the team has already accomplished many of their goals for the year. "We have qualified people for NESCACs in pretty much every event," said Digani. "To do that so early in the year is great. We are focusing on NESCACs and we think we can do real well there."

The Panthers' next meet will be on April 16 in Albany at the University of Albany Spring Classic. "We are excited to go to the meet," said Thacker. "Albany is a Division I school and it is a good chance to test ourselves. We are looking to improve our times and get better for the end of the year championships, which begin in a few weeks."