Though the Bulldogs did not take first place overall in the Brown Invitational, Saturday was still a great day for Yale men’s track.
The Elis finished with 149 points, behind host Brown, which took first with 249 points. Despite this spread in points, the afternoon was full of highlights for the Bulldogs.
Kevin Alexander ’06 won two important competitions: the 200-meter dash, which he completed in 21.62, and the 400-meter dash in 47.39. As a result of those times, Alexander has now qualified to compete in the IC4As in both events.
Alexander said the meet was full of successful times for the Bulldogs.
“I’m really excited about how the meet went,” Alexander said. “[There were] a lot of good performances spread out in different events. It looks like a step in the right direction.”
Victor Cheng ’08 also had a strong showing this weekend. Cheng came in second — to teammate Alexander — in the 200 with a time of 21.78. Cheng also won the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 10.4. This marked an improvement from his old time of 10.79, which had qualified him for the IC4As.
The Elis performed well in other events as well. Matthew Bordoni ’08 came in second in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.94, just behind Brown’s Jordan Kinley, who took first with a time of 1:53.81.
The 4 x 400-meter relay team managed to come in second place, in 3:17.63. Also, the 4 x 100-meter relay team finished in third in 41.92 despite struggles with handoffs.
Field athletes continued to perform well, a trend that has only recently developed. John Langhauser ’07 won the shot put with a throw of 16.94 meters, a personal record.
“He’s dominating — he’s top of the Ivy League,” said Cheng of Langhauser.
Despite the strength of his own performance, Langhauser was quick to point out the strong showing of the underclassmen in field events. He said the freshmen stepped up the level of their performances.
Langhauser mentioned several rookies in particular, including Kevin Hickenbottom ’09, who Langhauser said is close to the top of the league in the javelin, and Jeffrey Lachman ’09 and Nathan Noll ’09, who took second and third in the discus this weekend with throws of 48.63 and 47.66 meters, respectively.
“I think this week was really exciting because all of our throwers did really well, which is exciting because in the past we have not scored so well in throws,” Langhauser said.
While the Elis did not dominate the distance events on Saturday, they still made their presence felt. In the mile, Yale had three runners in the top 10. Brian Gertzen ’07 finished fourth overall with a time of 4:10.00, Jared Bell ’09 came in at sixth in 4:15.36, and Murat Kayali ’09 crossed the line at 10th in 4:19.19.
Alexander said he thought the meet was indicative of improvement within the Eli squad.
“It’s just encouraging to see a lot of the younger members of the team come out with big performances,” Alexander said. “I think we are heading in the right direction. The improvements we made in this meet shows that we will be ready for the next couple weeks.”
— Contributing Reporter Rebecca Yergin contributed to this report.