Track Teams Post Top Marks at NESCACs

On Saturday, April 26, the Track and Field teams competed in the focal event of their outdoor season, traveling to Waterville, Maine to contend for the NESCAC championship hosted by Colby. On a cold, rainy day, the men recorded their highest team finish in the meet’s history – finishing second behind only Tufts – while the women were third.

On the men’s side, the Panthers finished the day with five event victories. In the field, Jason McCallum ’14 took home the title in the pole vault with his mark of 15’ 1”, while teammate Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 won the high jump when he posted a mark of 6’2”.

On the track, Jake Wood ’15 earned a decisive victory in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 53.39 while first-year Alex Nichols ’17 earned a win in the 400 meter dash, edging out teammate Peter Hetzler ’14 to take home the victory in his first NESCAC meet with a time of 48.66.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Nichols, Bryan Holtzman ’14, Fritz Parker ’15 and Peter Hetzler ’14 secured a win for the Panthers when they edged Tufts by .04 seconds at the line, posting a time of 3:20.89.

“The relay was neck-in-neck for the entire of the race,” Holtzman said. “We led for two legs and our anchor Peter got the baton about two steps behind Tufts. [He] ran a beautiful leg and was able to pass the Tufts anchor in the final twenty meters of the race to seal the victory.”

Holtzman rounded out his day with a second-place finish in the 200 meters and a fourth-place finish in the 100 meters, while teaming up with Kevin Chu ’14, Parker and Adam Markun ’17 to finish second in the 4x100-meter relay.

Other top finishes for the men included Chu’s runner-up performance in the 110-meter hurdles, where he crossed the line in a time of 15.09. Deklan Robinson ’16 posted a pair of third-place finishes, tossing the javelin 173’11” and also clearing 6’2” in the high jump. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 finished third in the 1,500 meters while Shortsleeve rounded out his day by taking third in the 110-meter hurdles.

The men finished the day with a team point total of 166.5, good for second behind Tufts, who took home the crown with 178.9 points. In addition to their record overall finish, the Panthers far surpassed their previous record point total of 140, good for third at last year’s meet.

“We entered the meet with our sights set on victory,” Holtzman said. “Going into the meet, neither Tufts nor us were favored to win. It was a toss-up. We did everything we could, even beating our projected point total. Tufts happened to have an even better day than we did. This was the most fun and interesting meet I had been a part of from a team perspective.”

On the women’s side, the Panthers emerged with a victory in the 4x800-meter relay, in which Addis Fouche-Channer ’17, Katherine Tercek ’16, Olivia Artaiz ’16 and Summer Spillane ’15 posted a team effort of 9:30.22, edging Williams by less than a second.

“Crossing the finish line in first place was such an exciting and unexpected end to the day,” Spillane said. “All of us had put a majority of our energy towards our individual events, so we were pretty exhausted stepping onto the start line for the relay. When I heard my teammates’ loud cheers as I was rounding out the last 200 meters I knew I had to dig deep and kick.”

Alison Maxwell ’15 led the Panthers by posting a pair of second-place finishes, running 4:37.12 for 1,500 meters and 2:15.44 in the 800 meters. Katie Rominger ’14 took third in the 5,000 meters in 17:37.59, while Spillane finished third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Despite finishing seventh, the 4x100-meter relay team of Chelsea Montello ’16, Sara Sobolewski ‘14, Madi Goodstein ‘16 and Lauren Henry ‘16 managed to set a new school record with a time of 49.36.

In the field, Laura Strom ’14.5 took second in the high jump based on number of attempts, matching the winning mark when she cleared the bar at 5’3.75”. Lauren Pincus ’14 also turned in a runner-up performance with her toss of 135’11” in the javelin. First-year Hannah Blackburn managed a pair of third-place finishes, with a mark of 17’ 6.75” in the long jump and 35’ 8.5” in the triple.

The women finished in third place with 109.5 points, trailing behind Williams’ 179 and Tufts’ 126.

“Although the girls finished in third place, so many of us set new personal best records,” Spillane said. “We were all too busy celebrating everyone’s individual accomplishments to care too much about how we stacked up against the other teams. The overall result, although not what we ultimately wanted, stands as motivation for NESCACs next year.”

“It was a great day,” Head Coach Martin Beatty said. “Our goal is always to win, of course, because everyone wants to win NESCACs. But we put forth our best effort, and the athletes gave all that they could. It was a great result. We had a lot of personal records, and even though it was a cold, blustery Maine day, the team was so determined, and they all came together to pull for one another.”

The team has around 35 eligible athletes who have hit the required times and marks for this weekend’s Division-III New England Championship, and those competing will return to action on Thursday at Springfield.

“We begin to operate on more of an individual level now,” Beatty said of the weeks to come. “We’re trying to get that icing on the cake for each person who is able to qualify far into championship meets.”