The Yale men’s track team unveiled both its new track and potential stars in the team’s first meet after winter break.

The Eli freshmen secured many top finishes at the Yale Collegiate Track Classic, an invitational meet held Saturday Jan. 15 at the recently renovated Coxe Cage in New Haven.

Dan O’Brien ’08 earned first place in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.31, while James Carter ’08 finished fourth in the event at 8.64.

Other notable finishes included Victor Cheng ’08 and Brandon Giles ’08 who took second and third place respectively, in the 60 meter dash. Both runners posted a time of 7.02.

The race marked Giles’ first competition in the 60 meter dash. The freshman runner said he was satisfied with the third place finish but hopes to do better in future races.

“I think that we [freshmen] did well,” Giles said. “We are looking forward to getting out there and establishing ourselves in the Ivies.”

In addition, the freshmen 4×400 meter relay team almost broke the Yale freshmen record in that event. The team included Cheng, Giles, O’Brien and Chris Tingue ’08.

Veteran Bulldogs were impressed by the new crop of young guns.

“A lot of the freshmen stepped up, which is good to see this early [in the season],” Mike Brown ’06 said.

The elder Bulldogs posted impressive performances as well.

Casey Moriarty ’05, Lucas Meyer ’05 and Patrick Dantzer ’06 took the top three places in the 3,000 meter run. Moriarty posted a time of 8:30.59 and was followed closely by Meyer at 8:30.82. Dantzer finished third with a time of 8:33.16.

Kevin Alexander ’06 and Robert DeLaski ’06 finished second and third in the 400 meter dash with times of 49.45 and 49.95, respectively.

In addition, Josh Yelsey ’05 took second in the one mile run, posting a time of 4:13.55.

Yale’s 4×800 meter relay team finished first at 7:49.60. Eli squads also took the third, sixth and ninth places in the event. The distance medley team took first with a time of 10:01.44.

The invitational, in which the athletes competed on an individual basis, was significant because it was the Elis’ first meet on the new track and the first competition since winter break.

According to Brown, because no other Ivy League schools attended the invitational, many of the Elis used the meet as a practice.

“This was the first test of where we are this season,” he said. “We went for big individual performances, but how the team placed as a whole was not as important.”

Next Saturday the team will travel to Hanover, N.H. to face both Dartmouth and Columbia.

The upcoming meet against the two schools will be more intense because of the nature of Ivy League competition.

“[Next week] the emphasis will be more on beating the guy next to you,” Brown said. “Pride is more on the line.”

While Dantzer will not be competing in the meet, he said he was excited about the potential of the team’s younger members.

“We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who should be able to do a lot of good things,” he said.

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