Track Speeds to School Records and National Rankings

The Middlebury track and field team was back at Boston University on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1, where this year’s Open New England championship brought together the region’s best athletes across Divisions I, II and III. The Panthers had seven individuals and three relay teams compete over the course of the two day event, and brought home three new school records.

On the women’s side, Alex Morris ’16 continued her indoor success when she broke her own school record in the 400 meters by over half a second. Morris posted a time of 56.97, just sneaking under the 57-second mark and finished in ninth place overall.

“I was incredibly nervous about running this 400. Going into the race I was ranked 17th in the country and you must be in the top 17 to qualify for nationals, so I knew that I needed to pull out a significantly better time to move myself up the rankings,” Morris said. “When I saw 56.97 flash on the screen I couldn’t believe it, I’ve never been so excited in my life. I really benefited from a strong Division-I runner in my heat that I was able to chase and she really pushed me right to line.”

Morris is now the 13th-ranked athlete in the nation in the 400 meters.

“After the race, I didn’t even feel tired and it was so humbling how excited all my teammates and coaches were for me,” she said. “It’s moments like that that really make all the pain worth it”

Alison Maxwell ’15 also put forth a strong showing in the mile, taking 12th place in a time of 5:02.35. Maxwell, along with Morris, Erzsie Nagy ’17 and Jackie Kearney ’16, was also a member of the women’s distance medley relay team, which took sixth place in a time of 11:47.43 to earn All-New England honors and solidify a sixth place national ranking.

“We were hoping to go under 12 minutes,” Nagy said. “During my leg, my goal was to get as many people as I could. I could hear people shouting splits around me and I thought they were a little slow so I was shocked. That is why I love running the 1600 in the DMR; the field is already spread out so you just have to go after people. I was just trying to run as fast as possible so the team could go to nationals.”

In the field events, senior captain Laura Strom ’14.5 posted a mark of 5’ 7”, continuing her successful season and earning All-New England laurels with a fourth place finish in the high jump. Hannah Blackburn ’17 took 21st in the long jump with a mark of 16’ 7”.

On the men’s side, the 4x400-meter team of Fritz Parker ’15, Bryan Holtzman ’14, Alex Nichols ’17 and Peter Hetzler ’14 managed to bring home another Middlebury school record, running a time of 3:16.82 to break the previous mark of 3:18.61, set back in 2005. That time ranks them 10th in the nation with one week remaining to qualify for nationals.

“I was very surprised,” Hetzler said. “I knew we had the talent on the team, but I didn’t know we had it to that extent. We had known we could run a fast relay for a couple of years now. It is so fulfilling to finally put one together as a senior.”

The other relay for the day, the distance medley team of Nichols, Sam Cartwright ’16, Luke Carpinello ’16, and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 took fifth place with a time of 10:06.19.

“As a whole, I think we were a little disappointed with how the DMR went,” Schaaf said. “We basically ran the same time we did earlier in the season and we were hoping for more improvement.”

The remaining Panther men were Jason McCallum ’14, who took 12th in the pole vault with a mark of 14’ 9.5”, and Holtzman, who took 14th in the 200 meters with a time of 22.24, bringing home the third and final school record of the day.

With several individuals and relays sitting – for the moment – in contention for this season’s NCAA championships, a small group of athletes will travel to Boston on Thursday, March 6, to try to bolster their times at the Tufts Last Chance Meet. The team will then remain in Boston for Saturday’s ECAC championships.

“The 4x400 relay is going to Tufts because it’s a flat track,” Holtzman said. “The NCAA has come up with some conversions to help standardize times, and we think that we have a better chance of running a faster time on a flat track. If we don’t run as fast as we would like, then we will run on a banked track on Saturday at ECACs.”

Those who can make the final NCAA cut will finish their indoor seasons at the national championship meet at the University of Nebraska on March 14 and 15.