The Bulldogs were put to the test this past weekend at the sixth annual Giegengack Invitational at Yale’s Coxe Cage. Although the meet was not scored, the men and women’s track and field teams proved themselves up to the challenge by running, jumping and throwing their way to a slew of personal bests as well as ECAC and IC4A-qualifying times.

“A lot of quality teams come to this meet every year and it is unscored, so it is the perfect chance for everyone to really focus in on hitting some fast times,” Alexandra Cadicamo ’10 said.

A highlight for both teams was the distance medley relay. The DMR, as it is known, combines runners of different expertise for a 1,200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,600-meter leg in that order. Kate Grace ’11 led off for the women’s team, finishing well ahead of the competition after her 1,200; Claudia Duncan ’10, Annalies Gamble ’13 and Liya Assefa ’11 followed to pulled off a decisive win in 11:47.22, qualifying them for the ECACs. The men’s team of Chris Labosky ’10, David Soiles ’10, Chris Ramsey ’13 and Kevin Brown ’10 finished second in 10:02.24, qualifying for the IC4As.

“[The DMR] is a really fun race because there are four different distances so you pull from all different parts of the team and get to run with people you don’t usually run with,” Grace said.

Grace also won her individual 800-meter run earlier in the day with a time of 2:11.80, qualifying her for the ECACs in the event. She is hoping to bring her time down to 2:05.00, the NCAA-qualifying mark and slower than her personal record of 2:04.72, she said.

Cadicamo also set a personal record in the 3,000-meter with a time of 9:52.45, which qualifies her for the ECACs. The 4×400-meter relay team of Duncan, Allison Rue ’13, Gamble and Grace also qualified for the ECACs in 3:52.54 — the exact time they needed to do so.

“The 3k was incredibly fun,” Cadicamo said. “The energy in Coxe Cage was so high and the field was pretty fast, so it was actually the perfect scenario to race in.”

In the sprints, Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13, who plays for Yale’s soccer team as a goalie during the fall, placed third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.78 — just 0.1 seconds off the ECAC qualifying standard. Jackson-Gibson also finished fourth in the long jump with a distance of 5.56 meters. Rue finished sixth in the open 400-meter dash with a time of 58.52 and Marieme Mbaye ’12 was eleventh in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.09.

Emily Standish ’11 placed third in the high jump with a height of 1.60 meters while Eve King ’11 tied for seventh with 1.55 meters. Jenna Poggi ’13 cleared 3.20 meters in the pole vault for a fourth place finish.

“We saw a lot of improvement on the distance side from some of the underclassmen, which is really encouraging,” Cadicamo said. “I’m pumped to see what the rest of the season is going to bring for the team after some of the performances we had this weekend.”

On the men’s side, there were a number of personal best and IC4A-qualifying finishes as well. Labosky ran a time of 1:51.07 in the 800-meter race to finish fourth and move from No. 5 to No. 4 for all-time Yale indoor track in the event. Ramsey also ran a season best in the 800-meter, finishing in 1:55.27.

In his first 3,000-meter run of the season, Jeff Perrella ’11 finished fifth with an IC4A-qualifying time of 8:18.69. Similarly, Conor Dooney ’12 raced his way to an IC4A-worthy time of 4:12.36 in his season-opening mile, finishing eighth. In the same event, Matt Bogdan ’11 placed 11th (4:14.98), Max Walden ’11 was 18th (4:19.52) and Kevin Brown ’10 finished 22nd (4:20.66). Max Brown ’10 placed ninth in the 1,000-meter run with 2:30.29.

Yifan Chen ’12 had a strong performance in the triple jump, with a personal best of 13.31-meters, placing seventh.

“Basically I wasn’t expecting anything special this weekend so I was really relaxed, not too nervous,” Chen said. “That was actually good, if you’re too tense you wouldn’t be able to perform well.”

In the field events, Mike Levine ’13 placed third in the weight throw with 16.54-meters and David Smith ’11 threw a season best of 14.81-meter in the shotput, placing him in fifth.

The Giegengack Invitation was the teams’ last meet on the track at Coxe Cage this season. Next weekend they will travel to Princeton, N.J., to compete against their traditional rivals, Princeton and Harvard, which have a number of new recruits this year.

“The Big Three,” Chen said. “We’ve always had the rivalry. This year Princeton and Harvard are a lot tougher than they were in previous years.”