At track and field NESCACs, women take third, men fifth

Middlebury’s men’s track teams made their mark at the 2010 NESCAC Championships held at Tufts on Saturday. The Middlebury women placed third overall, while the men took fifth.

The Middlebury women finished the meet with four individual NESCAC champions and two winning relay teams. Kaitlyn Saldanha ’11 won the 800m in 2:14.67, qualifying provisionally for the NCAA championship. Margo Cramer ’12, Rebecca Fanning ’12 and Cailey Condit ’11 followed close behind Saldanha to complete a Middlebury sweep of the top four spots in the 800m race.

Cramer also won the 1500m with a time of 4:35.56. Laura Dalton ‘10 earned a win in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:03.92, and first-year Addie Tousley ’13 won the 10,000m race in 38:54.42.

Although happy with her victory, Tousley was most proud of the overall success of both teams.

“I had almost forgotten about my own race by the end of the meet because everyone else did so well,” said Tousley. “It was so exciting to watch all the other races. It was such a good day for our team –– a great day to be a Panther.”

The races to which Tousley was referring include the women’s 4x400 meter relay, in which the relay team of Dalton, Juliet Ryan-Davis ’13, Katy Magill ’11 and Anjuli Demers ’10 took first with a time of 3:57.91. Additionally, the 4x800 m relay team of Cramer, Saldanha, Condit and Christina Kunycky ’11 finished with a time of 9:27.97 to win the event.

Other top performers on the women’s side include Demers, who took fourth in the 400m dash with a time of 58.39, and Ryan-Davis, who took fifth in the event with a time of 58.87. Claire McIlvennie ’12 ran a time of 18:09.94 in the 5000m, which was good for fourth place.

Amanda Lee ’11, who qualified provisionally for NCAAs in the 3000m steeple chase last weekend, ran another NCAA-qualifying time of 11:07.37 at NESCACs take second in the event.

In the field events, Emily Dodge ’13 took sixth in the triple jump with a jump of 10.73m. Other first-years who put in strong field performances include Grace Doering ’13, who placed fifth in the high jump (1.60m), and Danielle Baker ’13, who was the runner-up in the women’s pole vault, clearing 3.12m.

The men’s side also saw a number of strong performances. Michael Schmidt ’12 won the 10,000m in 31:22.76, and first-year Jack Davies ’13 won the 3000m steeplechase, an event in which he had never competed prior to this track season, with a time of 9:17.46.

The men’s 4x400 m relay, consisting of Ethan Mann ‘12, Connor Wood ‘11, Mike Waters ‘10 and Michah Woods ‘10, took third with a time of 3:22.64, while the men’s distance medley –– Jack Davies ‘13, Lou Cornacchione ‘13, Addison Godine ‘11 and Mike Schmidt ‘12 –– placed second, running a time of 10:11.29.

James Huth ’12 ran a time of 11.57 in the 100m dash to take seventh, and Micah Wood ’10 took sixth in the 200m dash with a time of 22.91. Mann was Middlebury’s top competitor in the 400m dash, running a time of 50.44 to take fifth. The Middlebury men also performed well in the longer-distance events. Waters placed fifth in the 1500m run with a time of 3:56.41, and Victor Guevara ’10 took fifth in the 5000m race (15:05.60).

The men’s top finishers in the 110m hurdles were Stu Fram ’13, who took fourth with a time of 15.22, and John Montroy ’12, who took fifth with a time of 15.37. Jason Mooty ’12 captured fifth place in the 400m hurdles with a time of 56.26. In the field, Adam Dede ’11 placed fourth in the pole vault with a jump of 4.49m, while Nicholas Plugis ’11 threw a distance of 54.86 in the javelin throw, which was good for fifth place.

After strong performances at NESCACs, the track and field teams now look forward to the New England Championship meet to be held next weekend at Tufts University.