Track & Field Starts New Year Strong

Last Saturday marked the beginning of the indoor track and field season for the Panthers who had participated in the Middlebury Winter Classic. The day was filled with many notable performances.

“The first meet always helps all of our different event groups to come together as a big team and get back into the swing of competition,” said Lucy Lang ’19.  “We are so lucky that we got to have the meet at home with our track alumni.”

The men’s team finished in second place out of a total of five teams.  While the Panthers garnered 137.5 points, Plymouth State finished in first with 170 points.  One key performer for the men’s squad was Conor Banky ’19, who finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.29.  

When asked about his performance, Banky said, “It was a good starting point for me. Saturday was my first track meet and I lost by .01. Not the result I wanted, but I am happy to know where I stand and plan to improve throughout the season.”

In the men’s 200-meter dash, the Panthers took five of the first seven spots.  Jimmy Martinez ’19 finished in first with a time of 22.27, William Robertson ’21 took third with a time of 23.14, and Arden Coleman ’20 came in fourth with a time of 23.47.  The other top finishers were Matthew Durst ’21 in the fifth, and Josh Howard ’19 in seventh.  Max Memeger ’21 took first place in the high jump event with a jump of 1.83 meters.

Minhaj Rahman ’19 took first place in the 35 lb. weight throw with a throw of 18.17 meters.  This throw also happened to break the current school record, which was set by Rahman just last year. “Truly this is a highlight of my career that I will remember forever,” Rahman said.

With 123.5 points, the women finished in second place behind Plattsburgh State which had a score of 160 points.  There were many notable contributors for the team. In the 400-meter dash, Julia Munz ’22 and Lang came in second and third place, respectively.  Munz had a time of 1:01.67 and Lang had a time of 1:01.68.  Emma Hills ’22 placed first in the 500-meter run with a time of 1:21.32, while Emily Bulczynski ’22 placed first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.21.

The 4x400 relay team was able to get a first place victory with a time of 4:14.97.  This team was composed of Lang, Hills, Julia McClain ’22 and Ava O’Mara ’21.  In the pole vault event, Kreager Taber ’19 won with a vault of 3.35 meters.  In the shot put event, Helene Rowland ’20 was able to place first with a throw of 11.92 meters.

“We are still very early in the season and just came off of the winter break, so I think that our early successes are very promising for the rest of our season,” said Lang.

“Right now a lot of the team is making sure we ease ourselves back into the season to make sure we are setting ourselves up for the rest of J-term properly and not having a shaky foundation,” Rahman said. 

The Panthers clearly look to improve as the season progresses in order to become the best team possible. The next meet will be the Middlebury Winterfell on Saturday, Jan. 19.