Middle distance track squads go all the way

Author: James Schwerdtman

MIT hosted the final meet of the indoor season for the Panthers and the team continued to look strong against the rest of the NESCAC. It has been a long winter of preparation for the outdoor season, and the squad seems to be peaking at exactly the right time.

"The team is really strong right now," said Doug Mackey '11. "We're really rallying around each other on both the men's and women's sides." Phil Gordon '11 shared in Mackey's optimism, adding that "the team looked really good at MIT. We had a lot of great performances across the board."

Both the runners' chemistry and their times have been getting more and more impressive since the Dartmouth Relays in January. Once again, it was the 400-meter relay teams that put together some of the most crucial performances. The women's 4 x 400 relay team, consisting of Katy Magill '11, Grace Close '11, Rebecca Fanning '12 and Julia Sisson '12 improved its time by 5 seconds, winning the race in 4:08 minutes.

It has practically become an expectation that at the end of the day, the Panthers will come out on top in this event. The times have shown steady improvement with each meet, and these girls showed grit and determination last weekend, pulling out a win by less than a second against a tough Springfield College team.

The men's 4x400 relay team joined the women in victory this weekend with a time of 3:31. Ben Fowler '09, Addison Godine '11, Jason Mooty '12 and Jason Jan '12 came together to beat Tufts, Bates and Colby, among other non-NESCAC schools. Just as it was with the women, the finish was a tight one as the Jumbos came in less than a second behind the Panthers.

"The men's 4x400 looked really strong," said Gordon. "They were the biggest thing to take away from the meet."

While the relays were putting together solid performances in the middle distance, they did not overshadow a number of notable individual performances. Kaitlynn Saldanha '11 set a new school record in the 600m run and took first place with a time of 1:38. The men swept the same event, with Godine taking first at 1:26, Fowler coming in just behind him with the same time and Mooty following at 1:28. Christina Kunycky '11 won the women's 800m run at 2:23. The Panthers also shone in the women's mile, with Erin Toner '11 and Jessi Stevens '12 capturing first and second place at 5:26 and 5:27 respectively.

From here, the team begins to shift its focus to the spring season. Next weekend, those who qualified for Division-III New Englands will go back to MIT to compete. Following New Englands, part of the team will travel to the open New England Championships at Boston University, potentially competing as well in the ECAC Championships at Tufts.