The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Boston over the weekend, competing in two low-pressure meets with minimal Ivy League competition.
The women competed at the Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Center, while just two miles away, the men competed at the Terrier Invitational at Boston University. The women placed eighth out of 17 teams competing with 53 points, and the men’s race was not scored.
The women’s team excelled in the meet individually, achieving top 10 finishes in 10 out of the 15 events in which they participated. Kate Grace ’11 placed second in the 800 meter (2:08.80), beating her time from last week by three seconds. Nihal Kayali ’13, who competed in the 1000 meter last week, ran the mile on Saturday and finished in second place with a time of 4:47.84. Her time was the fourth-best by a Yale athlete all-time in that event.
With their weekend finishes, both Grace and Kayali qualified for the ECAC Championships in March.
“We came off a strong performance against Dartmouth and Columbia last week,” Alexa Monti ’12 said. “We wanted to carry over the momentum to this meet in Boston.”
In the 500, Gabriella Kelly ’12, Allison Rue ’13 and Annalies Gamble ’13 finished within one second of each other, earning third, fourth and fifth places (1:16.56, 1:16.85, 1:17.38). In the mile race, Elizabeth Marvin ’13 and Melissa Chapman ’14 followed Ayali, placing fifth and 12th, respectively. In the 1000 meter, Sarah Barry ’14 finished with a time of 2:56.37 for fifth place.
In the field events, the Bulldogs had many strong performances, including Kristen Proe ’14 and Beata Fiszer ’14 in the triple jump (sixth and ninth place), Stephanie Scaramella ’11 in shot put (seventh place), Emily Urciuoli ’14 (seventh) in pole vault, and Emily Standish ’11 in high jump (sixth).
“We want to keep on working hard these next couple of weeks,” Monti said. “We have some big meets coming up.”
Those big meets include Harvard-Yale-Princeton on Feb. 12 and the Heptagonal Championships later in the month.
Brown, the only other Ivy school in the competition, placed second in the meet overall. Yale was evenly matched with Brown on the track — in the seven races in which the two teams went head to head, Yale beat Brown in four — but with more runners on its roster, the Bears pulled ahead.
The men’s team competed against over 40 Northeastern schools at the nearby Terrier Invitational, including Dartmouth and a small contingent from Harvard. The Elis sported only 13 athletes competing in eight events, because, as the meet was not scored, many athletes used it as a chance to rest and get healthy.
Captain Marty Evans ’11 repeated his time from last week’s 200 meter dash, placing seventh out of 120 total runners with a time of 21.87. He also beat his personal record, set last week, in the 400 meter, running the race in 49.49 for 11th place. Evans earned a spot at the IC4A Championships in March with those times.
“I was looking simply to run fast and obtain good performances that would qualify me for future meets,” Evans said.
Matt Bieszard ’12 also had a standout performance. In his first appearance in the 500 meter, he led his heat from the beginning, finishing third overall with an IC4A-qualifying time of 1:04.50. According to Evans, while Bieszard will not be running the 500 next week, it is likely he will run it again in the near future.
Chris Stanley ’11, who played cornerback for the Eli football team, made his track and field season debut. He ran the 200 meter and placed first in his heat in the 400 meter. Matt Bogdan ’11 came very close to beating his personal record in the mile run, but Evans said he was “bumped around.” Bogdan ended the race in 87th with a time of 4:32.37.
The freshmen also had strong performances. Daniel Jones ’14 made it to the 60 meter finals where he finished in 10th (7.12). Dana Lindberg ’14 set a personal record in the 200 meter with a time of 22.72, a 38th-place finish.
“We learned how to put everything together, compete well and obtain good marks,” Evans said. “We gained the objective confidence to run fast, jump high and throw far.”
Harvard, with only three runners, did not pose much of a threat to the Bulldogs at the meet; however, Dartmouth, which beat Yale in last week’s meet, was able to win through its significantly larger roster. In the eight events the Big Green and the Bulldogs raced together, Yale pulled ahead in four.
“We’re happy with what we’ve done thus far, but there’s a lot that remains for us to be where we need to be in four weeks for Heptagonals,” Evans said.
Both the men’s and women’s teams return to action on Feb. 4 and 5 at the Giegengack Invitational at home.