While the men’s track team rested its distance runners, a strong showing in other events kept the Elis out of the basement at the Husky Invitational Jan. 31.
The Bulldogs, with 71.5 points, placed fourth out of a 14-team field at Northeastern University. Northeastern dominated the competition, defeating second-place University of Massachusetts-Lowell by more than 50 points.
Jordan Chapman ’05 led the Elis with 15 points, more than a fifth of the team’s total. He took second in both the high jump and pole vault with jumps of 6 feet 4 inches and 14 feet 6 inches respectively.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect in high jump,” Chapman said. “High jump is always a surprise.”
Chapman said he knew before the meet that Northeastern had three or four great vaulters, so he had no expectations. Though he said he hit the heights he wanted, Chapman also said he would have liked to have vaulted 15 feet, the mark he thinks he will need to beat in order to place in pole vault at Heptagonals.
With three big meets coming up in the following weeks (Cornell-Army, Harvard, and Heptagonals), Chapman said the team will begin practicing next week with the intention of peaking in time for its long run of competition in March.
The other principle source of scoring for the Bulldogs came from the duo of Robert LoBue ’04 and Matthew Boshart ’06. Finishing second and third respectively in the 800-meter run, they added a total of 14 points to the Bulldogs’ score. Each finished within a half second of the winner.
The 1,600-meter relay team finished second and the “C-squad” finished eighth, netting the Bulldogs a total of nine points.
The Bulldogs struggled in the horizontal jumping, hurdles, and shot put events. The Elis only earned a total of seven points in those events combined.
Assistant coach David Shoehalter said the Bulldogs performed well at the meet, especially since the distance squad did not compete, precluding the Bulldogs from earning points in three events. Shoehalter said that while this weekend’s results were promising, he would not comment on the team’s outlook in the upcoming weeks.
“We’re still rounding into shape,” Shoehalter said.
Team captain Allen Czerwinski ’03 scored four points in the weight throw. He said the team’s performance was encouraging. He said the coaches seemed pleased in team meetings with the results as well.
“We’re a very young team this year,” Czerwinski said. “I think we have a very good shot against Harvard. From everything I know, we should be strong against Harvard.”
Czerwinski said this Saturday’s meet against Cornell and Army will give a better indication of the strength of Yale’s team. Even though the field team will return thrower Nathan Lawrie ’04, Czerwinski said a Bulldog victory would require a poor performance by Cornell and a fabulous one by Yale.