riday’s Dartmouth Invitational was a great day for the Middlebury track and field teams. Although the Panthers did not win the invitational, placing third behind Dartmouth College and the University of Vermont, multiple athletes shone in their individual events.
Two athletes, tri-captain Laura Dalton ’10 and Margo Cramer ’12, qualified provisionally for Nationals. Dalton qualified for NCAAs in the 400m hurdles, placing second with a time of 1:04.05, while Cramer qualified for the meet in the 800m run, posting a time 2:14.18 for a second-place finish. Assistant coach Nicole Wilkerson described Dalton and Cramer’s races as two of the highlights of the meet.
Another high point was the record-breaking performance in the 1500m by Michael Schmidt ’12. Schmidt’s time of 3:56.64 broke the school record by almost two full seconds.
Although the races of Dalton, Cramer and Schmidt were the highlights of the meet, they were not the only strong performances. On the women’s side, Juliet Ryan-Davis ’13 ran a time of 58.64 in the 400m to take second. Mia Martinez ’11 brought in some points for the Panthers by placing third in both the 100m hurdles, with a time of 15.35, and in the 100m dash, with a time of 13.44. The top Middlebury finisher in the 5000m run was Claire McIlvennie ’12, who took third with a time of 18:05.05.
The women’s 4x400m relay of Dalton, Ryan-Davis, Cramer and Rebecca Fanning ’12 added to the team score by taking first in the event with a time of 4:00.88. In the field events, Grace Doering ’13 was Middlebury’s top athlete in the high jump, taking fourth with a jump of 1.53m, and Danielle Baker ’13 took third in the pole vault, clearing 3.05m.
On the men’s side, Jack Davies put in an impressive performance in the 3000m steeplechase, taking first in the event with a time of 9:25.24. Other top finishers on the men’s side included Micah Wood ’10, who took second in the 400m dash with a time of 49.88 and fourth in the 200m dash with a time of 23.01. In the 110m hurdles, John Montroy ’12 took third, running a time of 15.75, and was closely followed by fourth-place finisher Stu Fram ’13, who posted a time of 15.82. In the 400m hurdles, Louis Cornacchione ’13 ran a time of 56.59, which earned him second place.
Mike Waters ’10 was Middlebury’s top finisher in the 800m run, posting a time of 1:56.91. Waters was also part of the men’s 4x400m relay team, which included Addison Godine ’11, Connor Wood ’11 and Micah Wood ’10, that took second with a time of 3:24.29. In the field, Jason Jan ’12 was Middlebury’s top performer in the long jump, taking fourth with a jump of 6.16m and Alexander Myerson ’12 took second in the discus throw with a throw of 40.66m.
The Middlebury men and women now look forward to their second home meet next weekend, April 17. Wilkerson says that the home meet with be an opportunity for some fine-tuning prior to NESCACs, which will be held at Tufts the following weekend.
“[We’re] just trying to set up the team so we go into NESCACs with good seeds, as the NESCAC championship is a very competitive and fun meet,” says Wilkerson. “This second home meet is also an alumni track reunion, so it should be a lot of fun.”
Track and field teams take third at Dartmouth
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