Women Finish Third, Martinez Wins 400

The Middlebury track and field teams competed in their first championship meets of the indoor season last weekend in DIII New Englands. The women’s team was in action last Saturday, Feb. 17, while the men’s side hosted the meet in Virtue Field House last Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16–17. The women’s side finished third with a score of 73, and the men’s side finished fourth with a score of 83.

On the women’s side, Williams came in first and MIT came in second with scores of 149 and 127, respectively.

Overall, Middlebury competed hard throughout the meet. In the 200-meter dash, Kate McCluskey ’18 came in third place with a time of 26.09, setting a new school record in the race. McCluskey came in second place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.52.

Other highlights included the efforts of Meg Wilson ’20 and Brianna Bisson ’18 in the 800-meter run, in which they placed second and third place, respectively. Wilson had a time of 2:16.75 and Bisson had a time of 2:18.88.

With a time of 17:41.50, Talia Ruxin ’20 received second place in the 5000-meter run.  Middlebury placed in third in the distance medley featuring Katie Glew ’21, Gretchen McGrath ’21, Olivia Mitchell ’20 and Kate MacCary ’19. The group clocked in with a time of 12:19.27. On the “field” side of things, Helene Rowland ’20 threw a distance of 12.19 meters to place third in shot put.

On behalf of the men’s side, Jimmy Martinez ’19 remarked how he had never seen his teammates put in an effort like they did last weekend.

“The team competed harder than I’ve ever seen them compete before,” Martinez said. “I’m so proud of every one of my teammates for giving it everything and for bringing so much energy. We knew that hosting a championship meet was not something we get to do all that often, and I could tell everyone brought a little extra juice because of that.”

Ahead of the men’s team was Tufts with 110 points, MIT with 97 points, and Williams with 92.50 points.

Martinez and Nick Hendrix ’20 came in second and third place in the 200-meter dash with times of 22.40 and 22.42. Martinez also captured first place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.66.

Kevin Serraro ’18 competed in the 1000-meter run where his recorded time was 2:32.11, good for a fourth-place finish, and the one-mile run where he finished fifth with a time of 4:16.71.

Middlebury’s A team for the 4X400 relay — composed of Martinez, Mathew Durst ’21, Tyler Farrell ’18 and Cam Mackintosh ’20 — came in second place with a time of 3:21.57, while the Panthers’ A team for the distance medley included Jon Perlman ’19, Paul Malloy ’18, Nathan Hill ’20 and Will Meyer ’20 who captured first with a time of 10:21.57. Also, Minhaj Rahman ’19 threw 17.22 meters to come in fourth in the weight throw.

Martinez spoke of how the team is looking even more enthusiastically toward upcoming meets given their performances last weekend.

“The team sees now what it takes to be the best in New England,” Martinez said, “whether that be individually or as a team. Individually, many of us (especially the young guys) see just how close they are to being great. I tell my sprinter group that the work will pay off, and that they just have to trust it. As for the team, we see now just how balanced we are.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete at home in the Middlebury Track Carnival tomorrow and Saturday, Feb. 23 and 24, which will take place in the Field House.