Middlebury Track Takes on Division-I Opponents at Army Six Way Meet

The track and field team spent Saturday, April 12 in West Point, NY where they competed against five other teams in the Army Six Way meet, going up against a mix of schools that included four Division-I programs. The Panther squad as a whole took home five event victories and completed the day with a handful of other top finishes on both the men’s and women’s sides.

The men’s side saw three victories on the day, including a win by the 4x400 meter relay team of Alex Nichols ’17, Bryan Holtzman ’14, Fritz Parker ’15 and Peter Hetzler ’14. They look to continue the success achieved during indoor season when they qualified for the NCAA finals. The team brought home a decisive victory, besting the field by over four seconds as they crossed the finish line in a time of 3:19.09.

“The relay was pretty tight after the first two legs,” Nichols said. “But when Fritz got the baton he put a lot of distance on the only team that had kept up with us to that point. The ultimate goal in that race was to run a time that would seed us well for NESCACs. We would have liked to run half a second or so faster than we did, but we’re pretty content with our time considering we ran it without having someone in front of us to chase.”

Nichols also brought home the win in the open 400 meters, where he ran a time of 49.28.

“I think I got out a little slow, but I was able to make up a little time in the second half of the race, and I ended up running my fastest college time so far,” Nichols said. “I’m pretty happy with how well it felt, and I think I’m set up pretty nicely for NESCACs in two weeks, which is of course when I would like to run my fastest time.”

The other men’s victory of the day came from Wilder Schaaf ’14.5, who tied for the win in the 1500 with a time of 3:54.23. Other top finishers for the Panthers included Nate Sans ’14, who took second in the 5,000 meters in 15:14.73 and Hetzler, who finished in second behind Nichols with a time of 49.62 for the 400 meters.

Holtzman added a third-place finish to his day with a 22.55 performance in the 200 meters, and Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 also notched a top-three spot when he tied for third in the high jump with a mark of 6’ 2.75”.

On the women’s side, Alison Maxwell ’15 brought home the victory for the Panthers when she won the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:37.96.

“My 1,500 was a lot of fun, but at a meet like this, a non-championship meet, a win doesn’t mean anything more than a little morale boost,” Maxwell said. “I am still hoping to drop another four seconds this season so I can show up some of my times from last year.”

Lauren Pincus ’14 continued her dominant season with a win in the javelin, posting a toss of 132’ 9.25”. Other Panther women to propel themselves to a top finish included Katie Rominger ’14 in the 5k, where she ran 18:10.44. Teammate Lottie Hedden ’14 ran 18:27.14, a finish good for third. Hannah Blackburn ’17 continued her successful first-year season with a second place finish in the long jump, in which she posted a mark of 17’11”.

“Army was a great opportunity for all of us to see some really high quality competition for the first time this season, and it manifested itself in a number of outstanding lifetime [personal records],” Maxwell said. “But NESCACs is right around the corner, so no matter what, everyone has at least one more stellar performance in them.”

The Panthers will return to action when they compete this weekend at the Albany Invitational before traveling to Colby on Saturday, April 26 for the conference championship meet.