School Records Fall For Track & Field

The track and field team stayed busy over J-term and the duration of February break with three consecutive weekends of meets. On Jan. 24, the Panthers headed up to Canada to participate in the McGill Team Challenge in Montreal, a larger and more competitive meet than those in which they had competed previously.

One of the highlights of the two-day affair came when the women’s 4x200 team consisting of Alex Morris ’16, Jackie Kearney ’16, Sara Sobolewski ’14 and Lauren Henry ’16 broke the Middlebury school record, with a time of 1:47.45.

“It’s been incredibly hard this year without a track to build up any serious speed and turnover, so I don’t think we had many expectations going into the race,” Morris said. “We had never run together before as a relay team and that showed in our handoffs, but it’s always a good feeling to break a school record. We all know that there’s definitely a lot that can still be improved upon.”

Laura Strom ’14.5 also had a strong showing for the Panthers with her fourth place finish, while Emily Mellen ’17 took 12th in the pole vault, Hannah Blackburn ’17 finished 13th in the long jump and Morris placed 14th in the 600. On the men’s side, Jason McCallum ’14 took a solid 5th in the pole vault, while Sultan White ’17 finished 15th in the 60-meter hurdles.

The following weekend the Panthers were back in the United States, traveling to Hanover for the Dartmouth Classic on Feb. 1. On the women’s side, Strom once again finished strong in the high jump, taking second with a mark of 5’ 6”. Morris and Blackburn also performed well again, taking second in the 400 and long jump, respectively. On the men’s side, the 4x400 team consisting of Alex Nichols ’17, Fritz Parker ’15, Peter Hetzler ’14 and Alex Ugorji ’17 took second with a time of 3:25.49. Kevin Wood ’15 took third in the 3k with a time of 8:41.23, while Bryan Holtzman ’14, Luke Carpinello ’16, and McCallum all finished fourth in their respective events of the 60 meters, 1,000 meters and pole vault.

This past weekend, Feb. 7 and 8, the Panthers headed south for their most competitive meet yet, Boston University’s Valentine Invitational, which featured a flurry of sub-4:00 milers and some nation-leading times across the board. The day also brought a handful of stellar Middlebury performances, as Morris broke the standing school record  by .8 seconds in the 400 meters, finishing in 57.54 seconds.

“The 400 I ran at BU was one of my best races because it just felt effortless,” Morris said. “I’ve been dying to break 58 ever since I came to Middlebury, and was extremely frustrated last year when it never happened. To achieve it so early in the season is a great feeling as well as to break the school record, but for now I’m just focusing on each race and trying to enjoy every second of it.”

The women’s distance medley relay (DMR) team consisting of Alison Maxwell ’15, Erzsie Nagy ’17, Catie Skinner ’17 and Morris also posted a solid time that placed them in the top 10 in the country, running 12:09.02 and taking sixth place.

On the men’s side, the DMR team also ran themselves into a top 10 national ranking, as Sam Cartwright ’16, Wilder Schaaf ’14.5, Nichols and Carpinello posted a time of 10:05.05 in their ninth place finish. The men’s team also saw another school record broken, as Holtzman bested his own mark from last year with a time of 22.25 in the 200 meters.

“Valentine is always a great meet featuring top level competition,” Holtzman said. “Both the men’s and women’s teams had several standout performances and showed that the lack of an indoor track is not going to stop us from putting up great times. Personally, I’m very happy with how I ran. I went down to BU two weeks ago to run the 200 and unfortunately false started, so to come back and put up an indoor personal best in my first shot at the distance is quite encouraging. I hope to continue to take off time in the coming weeks.”

The Panthers have one more regular season meet at Tufts on Feb. 14 and 15. After that contest, their four week indoor postseason, in which each weekend brings a meet that is more difficult to qualify for.

“This year without having an indoor track and not having a normal training regimen, all of the January meets were all about competing ourselves into shape,” Head Coach Martin Beatty said. “Now, in February, our last few regular season meets are focused on having people qualify into the championship meets and extending their season.”

The Panthers will have their last chance to hit qualifying marks for DIII New England’s this weekend at Tufts, and those who make the cut will return to action the following weekend at Springfield and MIT.