This weekend, the women’s and men’s track and field teams competed in the unscored Giegengack Invitational hosted at Coxe Cage. The two-day meet featured outstanding performances by both the women and the men, leading more athletes to qualify for ECAC and IC4A Championships to be held later this year.
The men finished Friday with two notable victories: Reynolds Holmes ’10 won the long jump and Samuel Fox ’09 won the high jump, making the day’s competitions a strong starting point.
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“The team had some very outstanding performances in every area of competition,” Matthew Bieszard ’12 said. “We really are showing our true potential to be a wrecking force in the league.”
The male Bulldogs performed well in field events this weekend. Jeffrey Lachman ’09 placed second in the shot put, throwing a personal best of 16.42 meters, qualifying him for IC4A. Bulldogs Nathan Noll ’09 and David Smith ’11 won the fifth and sixth spots in this event. Yifan Chen ’12 placed sixth in the triple jump with a 12.95-meter jump.
Saturday proved a better day for the men in overall victories. Among the highlights was an IC4A qualifying 4:14.46-mile run from Julian Sheinbaum ’12. Jared Bell ’09 took second place in the 3,000-meter dash with 8:15.31 — the 10th-fastest time in Yale history.
At the end of the meet, the men’s 4×400 relay came through in the clutch, passing Southern Connecticut to win by almost one second. The relay comprised Marty Evans ’11, Ted Galligan ’10, Bieszard and David Soiles ’10.
“I think we were still a little disappointed to not have our full roster competing at their best and some athletes not competing because of nagging injuries,” Bell said. “[But] the team did meet its expectations in taking advantage of the good competition from other schools that showed up by racing hard and competing tough until the very end.”
The women also proved themselves and their hard work this weekend. The Elis counted three victories over the two days and also racked up several ECAC qualifying performances.
In addition, Claudia Duncan ’10 broke the Yale record she previously set in the 500-meter dash, notching a time of 1:13:92. Kate Grace ’11 took second in the mile run with 4:52.07, while Kelli Buck ’09 placed fifth in the 3,000-meter race and Gabriella Kelly ’12 came in third in the 300-meter race.
“Sprints didn’t go as successfully, but that may just be from having last weekend off,” captain Jen Lin ’09 said. “We’re not quite as sharp right now and we’re just working on speed stuff.”
But despite their slight disappointment with this weekend’s performances, the women are staying upbeat about the upcoming Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet this weekend in Cambridge, Mass.
“I think we’re a lot better than other teams think,” Lin added. “We have a good amount of depth and we’re pretty strong. I don’t know much about the Harvard sprinters, but it should be a good match to see where we stand in the league since we’ve already beat Dartmouth and Columbia.”
Added Bieszard: “We know we are physically fit, so we just need the right mental state and we will be unstoppable.”