Judging from the promising results of this past weekend’s Yale Collegiate Invitational, the men’s and women’s track teams are gearing up for a successful indoor season.
Yale hosted several Northeastern schools Friday and Saturday at Coxe Cage, with the Bulldogs putting up strong results across the board.
“Overall the performances were very encouraging,” said men’s head coach David Shoehalter.
The women were led by Vanessa Mazandi ’05, who placed first in the 800 meter with a time of 2:19.84. Eli jumpers also fared well, with Lisa LeCointe ’03 finishing second in the triple jump and Lisa Wygant ’04 finishing third in the high jump.
Captain Jessica Thomas ’02 said although the results were mostly positive, there is still much work to be done for the rest of the season.
“I thought the meet on Saturday gave the women a good baseline from which to build because I don’t think anyone who competed will be satisfied to stay at the level where she is now,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a long season ahead of us and track is a sport that builds from week to week as the intensity and importance of the meets increases.”
Many of the highlights of the men’s track team came from the class of 2005. Lucas Meyer ’05 ran an impressive mile time of 4:23.17. In the distance medley relay, the Eli team of Rob LoBue ’04, Mike Ambinder ’02, Kyle Hilgendorf ’05, and Bobby Dwyer ’04 left the competition in the dust, placing first in the event.
Men’s captain Donald Carson ’02 pointed to Casey Moriarty’s ’05 performance on the indoor track as a highlight of Saturday’s meet.
On the field, rookies Nate Lawrie ’04 and Jordan Chapman ’05 gave spirited performances, placing fourth in the shot put and high jump, respectively.
Carson said the past weekend’s meet gave a good indication of where the team needs improvement.
“[It] was a typical early season meet,” he said. “It both exposed some of our weak points in training thus far while also hinting at the encouraging amount of promise this team has.”
Although the results of this past weekend were promising, women’s head coach Mark Young said it would be premature to predict the Bulldogs’ performances for the rest of the year.
“It’s just too early for stuff to be jumping out at you,” he said. “[The event] wasn’t much more than an opportunity to get back into the routine of racing.”
But Young also said the Bulldogs will definitely give the competition a run for their money.
“Our expectation is that we will do pretty well in our conference,” he said.
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