Among teams from all over the east coast, the men’s and women’s track and field teams scored well but did not take home any gold medals this weekend at Boston College’s Terrier Invitational.
The women’s day was highlighted by two second place finishes. Alexa Monti ’12 took silver in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.78 seconds, her season best. This victory matched Monti’s second place finish in the 60-meter dash last weekend against Dartmouth and Columbia.
The second of the women’s silver medal performances came in the 1,000-meter run. After nursing a foot injury since December’s break, Nihal Kayali ’13 was just 0.19 seconds short of a first place finish in a field of 49 other runners. Her time of 2:49.67 was a personal best.
“The race was exactly what I needed to get my confidence up and to wet my appetite for competition as we head into the heart of the indoor season,” Kayali said.
She added that although this was an unscored meet, she thinks the team competed at a higher level than it did last week at Dartmouth, when the Elis came in third behind the Big Green and the Lions.
The 4 by 400 relay team also faired well and posted a season best time. Annelies Gamble ’12 ran her personal best for the season in the 800-meter run and placed fourth. Elizabeth Marvin ’13 ran her first 5000-meter race and finished eleventh among 70 other competitors. In the field events, Emily Urciuoli ’12 placed sixth in the pole vault, and Amanda Snajder ’14 placed 19th in the long jump.
“My performance was less than what I had hoped for. I don’t think I can pinpoint the problem, but I will definitely get some good practices in this week to prepare for this weekend,” Urciuoli said. “As for the team, we had a lot of stellar performances this past weekend from a number of individuals… Hopefully our hard work will continue to show over the duration of the season.”
Although much of the men’s team did not compete at the Terrier Invitational in order to rest for the coming weekend’s meet at home, the runners who did compete enter the competition put up promising times.
Timothy Hillas ’13 ran his first ever 3,000-meter race and placed 14th out of 42. He qualified for the IC4A Track and Field Championships, and posted the seventh fastest 3,000-meter time in Yale history. Sam Kirtner ’13 placed 33rd after qualifying for the Championships at last weekend’s meet and broke his personal record in the race.
“I was definitely happy with my race; it was the fastest 3,000 I’ve run, and it was encouraging because most of our workouts have been longer and slower to better get us ready to run fast in the spring, so I think all of us have room to improve,” Kirtner said.
Paul Chandler ’14 finished fifth in the pole vault with a height of 4.55 meters. Chandler said that while this was his season best he believes that he still has the potential to jump higher, adding that he hopes to continue to improve his marks.
Weight thrower Mike Levine ’13, on the other hand, took ninth in his field and was well shy of his past performances.
“I had some good practices this week but could not put it together on Saturday,” Levine said. “Our team had a lot of good performances this weekend, and I am excited to see how the team progresses in the next couple of weeks.”
Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams will be back in action this week in New Haven when Yale hosts the Giegengack Invitational at Coxe Cage.