Women tracked Ephs the whole way

Author: Livingston Burgess

The Middlebury women's outdoor track and field team made a strong statement on its home ground Saturday, taking second at the NESCAC championships and fielding five individual event winners. On the men's side, Pat Sedney's '08 and Bobby Marcoux's '07 second place showings paced the team on its way to fifth place.
Alexandra Krieg '09 led the home meet off in a big way for Middlebury, outlasting a three-woman lead pack to take the women's 10,000-meter, the day's first race, in 36:41.15 seconds. Krieg also ran the 5,000 meter and placed seventh.
Coach Martin Beatty said that starting the meet off with a win was a huge mental boost to the team and the spectators.
"Just to establish ourselves, especially at a home meet and at the NESCACs, was awesome," he said. "It got people even more pumped up and made everyone else want to go out and put up efforts like hers, which was just superhuman."
While Krieg was locked in that battle, Meira Lifson '07 was well on her way to capturing Middlebury's first of two titles in the field events. Lifson took the pole vault championship with a leap of 3.27 meters.
Seniors Beth Butler and Claire Schultz capped their NESCAC careers with a one-two finish in the women's 800-meter, which Butler led from the start and controlled for every step. She spent the first lap on the heels of Williams' Katie Howard and willed her way to a spectacular second lap.
"The last lap was pure adrenaline, everyone screaming, on my home track, at the NESCACs, my senior year," said Butler. After the stretch run, she and Schultz joined hands in celebration. "It was great for us to both pull it through."
Butler's co-captain, Mary Frederickson '07, finished out a perfect record at the NESCACs with her fourth javelin championship in as many tries. This time the competition was not even close. Frederickson's throw of 40.47 meters in the finals was 6.82 meters farther than her closest opponent, Hamilton's Laura Belden.
In another dominating performance, the women's 4x800 meter relay team made it a race for second when Butler gapped the chase pack within the first lap. Kara Plunkett '07, Susanna Merrill '09 and Schultz cruised from there to a 9:21.30 victory.
Other high-placing finishers for the women's team included the 4x400 meter team of Simone Weisman '09, Laura Dalton '10, Claire Zutz '10 and Anjuli Demers '10. Demers went out fearlessly in the anchor leg, but was nipped in the home stretch by the team from Bowdoin.
Kelley Coughlan '09 took third in the 100-meter hurdles, fifth in the high jump, seventh in the long jump and third in the triple jump to pace Middlebury with 18 points earned.
Demonstrating the grit that garnered him captain's honors, Will McDonough '07 hung with the lead pack in the 3000-meter steeplechase for as long as he could, and held off Tufts Chad Uy with pure determination in the final lap to finish seventh in 9:44.55.
Middlebury's other men's captains, Pascal Losambe '07 and Marcoux, turned in strong performances of their own. Marcoux was second in the discus with a throw of 47.92 meters, and Losambe was sixth in the shot put and fifth in the hammer throw. His distances were 13.32 meters and 43.73 meters, respectively.
Bruce Hallett '10, who took fourth in a stacked men's 1,500-meter field, turned in one of the day's more exciting performances. Colby's Ian London and Williams' Mike Davitian, lined up beside Hallett, held between them a NESCAC record and a reigning title. Hallett, however, ran a gritty race, holding off a charging Polar Bear in the final lap to finish in 4:00.73.
"It's a little intimidating," said Hallett, "but I know how they run, and I try to just kind of phase them out and run my own race.I went out trying not to get boxed in, and we were right where we wanted to be at the 800 Ö I feel good about how I ran."
First-year Micah Wood, like Hallett, posted good performances in events with strong competition, running in the traditionally crowded 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter sprints. In the 100, he was eighth in 11.64 seconds, and took 12th in the 200 in 23.08. Most impressively, he was fifth in the 400 with 50.99, despite running in the first heat, in which no competitors offered a pace off of which he could push himself. He also ran the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter relays.
Beatty had high praise for Wood's efforts, and for Demers, who had the same lineup of races.
"We rarely let someone do five races in a meet, but they really stepped up, saying they wanted to do it for the team," said Beatty. "To have freshman that committed is just great."
Beatty was also very happy with the support of the College community, who came out in large numbers, despite threatening rain, to cheer on the Panthers.
"I'm very excited about how we were able to host this meet, especially for our seniors," he said. "It's great to be able to showcase track and field here at Middlebury College. People got to see just how exciting the sport can really be."
The Panthers still have four more weeks of competition, including the D-III New England championshps, the Open New England championships and the M.I.T. Invitational, before the NCAA championships.
Frederickson (javelin), Marcoux (discus), Krieg (5,000-meter), Butler (800-meter), Schultz (800-meter) and Jimmy Butcher (10,000-meter) have already qualified for NCAAs and will compete in Oshkosh, Wisc., May 24-26.