Yale men’s track and field showed two important things this weekend. The first was that the Elis supported each other across the board, cheering for every event. The second was that the Bulldogs come to win.

This Sunday, the Bulldogs competed at Coxe Cage against Columbia and Dartmouth. In the tri-meet, the Elis’ first competition against Ivy League opponents, the Bulldogs were dominant. The Elis finished first with 93 points, followed by the Big Green with 62 and the Lions with 14. Yale won eight events at the meet. On the track, the Bulldogs received at least gold and silver in every event longer than the 500-meter.

In the mile, captain Rob Lobue ’04 finished first, followed by Casey Moriarty ’05 and Patrick Dantzer ’06. Dantzer came out hard in the beginning but gave the lead up to Moriarty. In the end, Lobue and Moriarty ran together, but Lobue edged Moriarty. Lobue finished the race with a time of 4:16.04, Moriarty finished in 4:17.04, and Dantzer finished in 4:19.60.

“I am pretty happy with my performance,” Lobue said. “It was great to see everyone competing strong and everyone approached the meet with the intent to win.”

Running a shorter-distance race than he usually does, Josh Yelsey ’05 won the 1000-meter race with a time of 2:29.86. Reed Mauser ’05 finished second. Yelsey said he was not happy with the way he ran he last weekend during a relay event at the Yale Invitational. But this Sunday, Yelsey felt more relaxed and stronger.

“I am happy hitting that time because it qualifies me for IC4A’s, but I am focusing on the mile this year.”

As one of the upperclassmen on the team, Yelsey said he sees this meet’s strong showing as a confidence builder.

“Even though we dominated here, we are still training very hard because we are not in personal record shape,” Yelsey said. “If we keep working, I think we can get top three in the league.”

Other Bulldog runners who won include Matt Boshart ’06 in the 800-meter, Rob deLaski ’06 in the 500-meter, Luke Meyer ’05 in the 3000-meter, and Russ Kempf ’07 in the 55-meter dash.

In the field events, Eoghan O’Dwyer ’04 won the hammer throw with a personal best of 15 meters 71 centimeters. O’Dwyer also placed fourth in the shot put. Another field event winner was Matt Lachman ’07 in the pole vault.

O’Dwyer said he was happy about earning a personal record this past meet.

“This distance has been a long time coming,” O’Dwyer said. “It is only a stepping stone for me and I still have a long way to go.”

O’Dwyer also said what was most notable about the tri-meet was the general support every Bulldog had for one another.

“For me, having everyone cheering for each other really played a role in my personal best,” O’Dwyer said. “It also showed in the results because what could have been a close meet was dominated by us.”

As the Bulldogs move into the rest of the indoor season, this kind of support will be important if the Elis are going to continue dominating.

[ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”18525″ ]