Individuals accrue high scores at MIT

Author: James Schwerdtman

With the indoor track season winding down, some of the best Panthers were in competition at the Division III New Englands this past weekend. The men traveled to MIT for the second weekend in a row - having competed last week in the MIT Invitational - while the women were in action at Bowdoin. Individual members of both teams qualified for the meet over the course of the season based on time and finish.

Although there were fewer Panthers at the meet than in past years, the total number of points scored was higher. "I would say first that we scored more points than last year," said captain Ben Fowler '09. "Although we didn't have as many guys competing, everybody that was there did really well."

Michael Schmidt '12 had a strong day, coming in sixth in the 5000-meter run at 15:29. Based on his time, Schmidt was named to the All-New England team. Adam Dede '12 also put together an impressive performance, jumping 4.27 meters in the pole vault, although the number was a little bit disappointing to him.

"I would have liked to have gone a little higher," he said. "We have Open New Englands next week, so I'm hoping to iron out things during practice this week and see everything come together."

John Montroy '12 was another underclassman that had a solid day, running the 55-meter hurdles in 8.29 seconds.

As has been the case all season, the relay teams were impressive at both MIT and Bowdoin. Addison Godine '11, Jason Mooty '12, Connor Wood '11 and Fowler placed fifth in the 4x400 meter relay at 3:29. Like Schmidt, the relay team also received All-New England honors. At Bowdoin, Julia Sisson '12, Rebecca Fanning '12, Grace Close '11 and Katy Magill '11 had another successful day, placing fifth in the 4x400 meter relay at 4:07. Magill also ran well in the 600-meter run, setting a new personal record and tying the school record.

"We had a very bottom-heavy team," said captain Kelley Coughlan '09. "The underclassmen are stepping up and it's really nice to see us coming together at this point in the season."

Kaitlynn Saldanha '11 followed up her great performance last week with another strong showing. She finished second in the 800-meter run, coming in at 2:16 and qualifying for Nationals in the process. She also anchored the 4x800 meter relay that came in fifth at 9:46.

"The past few weeks she has been running really well," said Coughlan.

From here, the focus will continue to be preparing for the spring season. There are no more team meets until the spring trip to San Diego, but some Panthers qualified for Open New Englands next weekend. This meet will have all of the same schools from this past weekend, as well as Division I and II schools. For the men, Schmidt and Dede qualified, and for the women, Coughlan, Jen Brenes '09 and many of the distance runners qualified as well.

"The focus of the track season is the spring competition," said Fowler. "We're really excited to get things rolling during the spring."

Dede was also optimistic about the upcoming season. "I think overall we're looking good going into the spring," she said. "We've had a lot of people setting personal records during the indoor season and a lot of our distance girls have been doing really well."