In addition to their usual collegiate competitors, Elis had to battle windy weather at two different track meets this weekend.

Both men’s and women’s track teams split into two groups this weekend to attend two invitationals. Most of the teams’ runners headed to Williamsburg, Va., to compete at the 44th Colonial Relays at William & Mary College, while members of the team who primarily specialize in field competition traveled to Princeton for the Sam Howell Invitational. The men’s team placed 13th out of 25 teams at the Colonial Relays and performed strongly at the unscored Sam Howell competition.

The wind definitely impacted competitors at both locations, athletes said.

“With the wind being a factor you definitely have to be more conservative in terms of strategy because you don’t want to jump to the lead and get stuck fighting against the wind,” Jared Bell ’09 said. “Everyone’s dealing with the same conditions so you kind of have to block it out and run your own race.”

Bell placed ninth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.41.

Jeffrey Lachman ’09, Marty Evans ’11 and Remi Ray ’10 all achieved personal bests.

Ray came in second with an IC4A-qualifying time of 48.14 in the 400-meter dash, a mere one-hundredth of a second behind the first place finisher.

Evans also achieved a personal best of 48.80 in the 400m, which earned him an eighth-place finish. He also ran an excellent 200-meter dash with another personal best of 21.95.

Lachman continued an impressive winning streak in the discus event, coming in as the top finisher for the third year in a row with a personal best throw of 175 feet 2 inches.

“Some of the better Ivy throwers were there, so it’s always nice to throw well with that competition there,” Lachman said. “You play to win the game and I won the game.”

At the Colonial Relays, the women’s team placed 11th out of 23 teams, but the inclement weather impeded their success at Sam Howell.

However, two members still managed personal bests.

Kate Grace ’11 finished second in the 1,500-meter run with a personal record time of 4:32.12.

Bevin Peters ’09 ran a personal best of 11:03.69 for a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

According to captain Jen Lin ’09, the 4×400 meter relay also ran a good race. The team of Claudia Duncan ’10, Jennifer Parker ’11, Gabriella Kelly ’12 and Grace ran an ECAC qualifying time of 3:49.75 to place fourth in the event.

Lin felt that the season held great potential for the team.

“We’re in the middle of training and everyone is training really well,” Lin explained. “How we do now is not any indication of how we could do at the end of the season.”

In addition to the wind, the two-day format of the William & Mary meet was a learning experience for both the men’s and women’s teams.

“It was good to get some experience running back-to-back days,” Bell said. “After dealing with the elements one day and having to come back the next day after riding on a bus for hours, you learn you have to do little things to take care of your body between days.”

This knowledge comes at an opportune time for the Bulldogs, who will face another two-day meet at the Heptagonal Championships on May 9 and 10.

The track teams will be back in action this weekend on their home track. On Friday, the teams will team up with Harvard to battle British universities Oxford and Cambridge, and on Saturday they will face off against Ivy League competitors Penn and Princeton.