Tag Archive: Indoor Track

  1. TRACK | Elis come up short

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    After showing significant promise last week at the Giegengack Invitational, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams came up short this Saturday in Cambridge against archrivals Harvard and Princeton.

    The Tigers and the Crimson dominated the men’s team. The Elis scored 13.00 points to Princeton’s 100.50 and Harvard’s 56.50. Despite a disappointing team finish, the Bulldogs were able to secure four individual podium finishes.

    Captain Matthew Bieszard ’12 shone in the 400-meter dash, finishing in second place overall with a personal collegiate best of 48.40 seconds. Daniel Jones ’14 was third in the 60-meter dash with a personal record and IC4A-qualifying time of 6.96 seconds.

    “I know I could have done better,” Jones said. “I messed up on the little things, the details. And when you mess up a few of the details, that’s the difference between getting third with a 6.96 and getting first with a 6.92.”

    William Rowe ’15 placed fourth in an extremely tight 500-meter dash. Like his fellow freshman, Daniel Kemp ’15 came up big in the 60-meter hurdles, where he ended in fourth and set a personal record.

    Dana Lindberg ’14 placed fourth in the long jump with a height of 6.94 meters. He said that he was disappointed that he could not top his similar performances in the last two meets and that the Bulldogs could easily have beaten the Crimson. However, Lindberg said the Elis will have a chance for revenge against Princeton at the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships later this month.

    “We are good team, but if we are going to do well at the [Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships], then every individual will need to take it upon him or herself to compete better than they ever have before,” said Tim Hillas ’13, who finished fourth in the mile run with a personal-best 4:08.43, improving his previous best this season by over three seconds.

    Like the men’s team, the women’s track and field team was able to attain four top-three finishes, despite scoring only 13.00 points and falling well short of Princeton’s 80 and Harvard’s 65.50.

    Lindsey Raymond ’12 met success on Saturday, placing third in the 3,000-meter race. Her time qualified her for the ECAC Championships and was the best by an Eli all season. (Raymond is a former city editor for the News.)

    “I think I could have done a better job of pacing myself so I could have time to catch up to the leaders,” Raymond said. She added that the Bulldogs’ disappointment will motivate them to victory at Heps.

    Kira Garry ’15, who finished sixth in the 3000-meter, said that she was pleased to set a personal record and to do well in her first HYP meet. She said the team had the right attitude going into the meet and was prepared but simply did not compete to its ability.

    In the one-mile run, the Bulldogs also fared well, capturing second and third places. Sarah Barry ’14 finished with a time of 4:50.56, just ahead of Nihal Kayali ’13.

    “It was an exciting race given the great competition, and I was happy to be able to score some points for the team,” Barry said.

    The women’s day also featured a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles by Amanda Snajder ’14, a third-place finish in the pole vault by Emily Urciuoli ’14 and a third-place finish in the triple jump by Elle Brunsdale ’15.

    “There were a few great performances over the weekend, but as a collective group, we fell short of our goals,” said Urciuoli. “We need to forget about the meet, move forward, and train over the next few weeks.”

    The Bulldogs will take a week off and then compete in its most important meet yet at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships on Feb. 25.

  2. TRACK | Elis hit personal bests at Coxe Cage

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    The men’s and women’s track teams each collected four first-place finishes this weekend against teams that included Sacred Heart, St. Joseph’s and Ivy League rival Penn, as they hosted the eighth annual Giegengack Invitational at Coxe Cage.

    On Friday, the highlight for the men’s team was a podium-sweeping performance in the 5000-meter run. Isa Qasim ’15 took first in the event, with Matthew Thwaites ’13 and Kevin Lunn ’13 following just behind him in second and third. All three Eli runners set personal best times as they distanced themselves from the rest of the field.

    “It’s great to see the hard work that the team has been putting in start to pay off,” Qasim said. “I am pleased with how I ran, and I am looking forward to going faster next week at Harvard. Everyone on the team ran well. It was awesome to see everyone looking so strong.”

    Friday also found weight thrower Mike Levine ’13 bounce back from a disappointing ninth place performance last week at the Terrier Invitational in Boston and finish first with a throw of 16.87 meters. Levine said that while he could have thrown even farther, he was pleased with his performance and the win. He added that the team still needs to work hard to be successful next week against Harvard and Princeton. In addition to Levine’s success, captain Matthew Bieszard ’12 earned second place in the 200-meter dash, as did Dana Linberg ’14 in the long jump.

    The second day of the invitational proved equally successful for the Bulldogs. Both Paul Chandler ’14 and Michael Pierce ’13 had first place finishes — Chandler in the pole vault and Pierce in the mile run.

    “Most of us were asked to run two or three events this weekend to prepare us for the two day/trial-and-final structure of the [Ivy League Heptagonal Championships], and the results were definitely encouraging,” Pierce said. “The team as a whole handled the increased load really well.”

    Chandler and Pierce’s results were followed up by favorable finishes in many other events. Bieszard added another silver medal to his collection after his performance in the 500-meter dash, and William Rowe ’15 was close behind in fifth. Daniel Jones ’14 set a personal record in the 60-meter dash and matched Bieszard with another second place result.

    The women’s performance at the invitational largely mirrored the men’s in its outcome. Its first day was marked by impressive performances across the board. Emily Cable ’15 set a personal record as she took second place in the 200-meter dash — a race in which the Elis took seven of the top 27 times. The Bulldogs also saw success in the 500-meter run, with Jennifer Downing ’12 finishing third, followed by Jennifer Donnelly ’13 in fourth and Hannah Alpert ’15 in sixth place.

    While day one had only one top-three result for the Elis, the following day of the invitational featured four more Bulldog podium finishes.

    Dissapointed by a ninth place finish on the first day of competition, Alexa Monti ’12 turned things around and finished first in the 60-meter dash, edging out a Manhattan College competitor by just a hundredth of a second.

    “This weekend was a great team effort,” Monti said. “Everyone competed hard. We have some solid momentum rolling into next weekend, and hopefully we can capitalize on it after a week of quality training.”

    Emily Urciuoli ’14 marked a personal best in the pole vault, capturing first place with 3.75 meters. She now is second in pole vaulting on the Bulldogs’ all-time list for indoor track. Urciuoli said that the competition was especially exciting for her as the invitational marked the start of the competitive part of the season, and it was a good indicator that the team has the training and the talent to succeed over the next few weeks.

    After earning a personal best and attaining a silver medal performance at the Terrier Invitational last weekend, Nihal Kayali ’13 took second once again in the mile run. Sarah Barry ’14 and Allison Rue ’14 matched Kayali and took seconds in the 1000-meter run and the 500-meter dash, respectively.

    Annelies Gamble ’13, who took third behind Rue in the 500-meter dash, said that while she wished she had run faster in the 500 meters, it was the first time running the event in a long time, and she thinks she was able to improve her turnover enough to show promise in the 800-meter dash later in the season.

    In the 3000-meter run, the Elis took fourth through sixth place.

    “Personally, I was happy with my race,” said Clare Kane ’14, who took fourth. “I’ve been coming off an injury that sidelined me for a year, and Saturday’s race was the first race where I started to feel like my old self again.”

    The men’s and women’s teams will compete against archrivals Harvard and Princeton this weekend in Cambridge, Mass.

  3. TRACK | Bulldogs improve times at Terrier Invitational

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    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.

  4. TRACK | Labosky, Grace shine at HEPS

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    The men’s and women’s track teams struggled to post points during the weekend’s Heptagonal Championships in Hanover, N.H.

    The Bulldog men earned a score of 28 to finish last among the eight competing teams, while the Yale women racked up 16 points to tie host-squad Dartmouth for seventh place.

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    The Princeton Tigers captured first place overall with a total of 181 points on the men’s side.

    “On the whole, the meet was a pretty dismal showing for Yale track and field,” distance runner Chris Labosky ’10 said. “Given the small size of our squad, there are some events we just don’t have enough coverage in, and this weekend we failed to score in some key events, costing us big.”

    Still, numerous athletes had standout performances in the meet, and the Elis qualified in four events for the IC4A Championships, which will be held in Boston between March 6 and 7.

    Eric DePalo ’10 led the team in Saturday’s field events, taking fourth in the pole vault with a 16-foot-.75-inch leap — a mark that qualified him for the IC4As. Thrower Mike Levine ’13 gave another strong showing the next day, achieving a personal best of 17.98 meters in the weight throw to take fifth and also qualify for the IC4As.

    On the track, Yale’s star 1,000-meter runner Labosky won his signature event with a season best of 2:25.50 — unseating defending champion Jeff Moriarty of Columbia in the process.

    “The feeling of winning [Heptagonals] is nearly indescribable,” Labosky said. “I knew going into the race that Moriarty would be the one to beat. Moriarty moved at the bell lap but he couldn’t hold it all the way around. I passed him with just less than half a lap to go.”

    Labosky returned later in the day to join teammates Kevin Brown ’10, Chris Stanley ’11 and Chris Ramsey ’13 for the distance medley relay. The group finished third in 9:55.44 to break 10 minutes for the first time this season.

    The 4 x 800 relay team of Max Brown ’10, Jake McKenzie ’12, Andrew Esposito ’12 and Timothy Hillas ’13 also posted a personal best (7:49.67) and earned an IC4A qualifier.

    Like the men’s team, the Bulldog women also had a tough time stringing together points at the championships.

    “We were disappointed about the final results of the meet — that is not the way any team wants to end a season,” distance runner Alexandra Cadicamo ’10 said. “We had the potential to do better and it didn’t happen this weekend. But now we’ve all just got to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we’re going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

    Eve King ’11 opened the Elis’ scoring on Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the pentathlon — good for two points. King totaled 3,184 points across the five events. She remained in 10th place after the first four events, but her best performance came in the 800-meter race when she clocked 2:27.21 to take fourth and jump to fifth in the final standings.

    “By the time I lined up for the 800, it was the end of the meet on Saturday, so I had seen everyone just miss out on finals or placing and I knew how important it was for me to put up points for our team score,” King said. “The race went out way too fast, and honestly I would have totally died the last lap except that the whole team was spread around the track yelling like maniacs.”

    The 800-meters proved to be Yale’s shining moment again on Sunday.

    Middle-distance runner Kate Grace ’11 won the 800 for the second year running with a season best of 2:07.77 — beating her previous season best by three seconds.

    “Undoubtedly one of the most exciting races for the entire team was cheering on junior Kate Grace as she defended her title as the Ivy League 800-meter champion,” captain Faith Briggs ’10 said. “She battled with a very tough field and really gave her all.”

    Grace also contributed to Yale’s fourth-place finish in the 4 x 800-meter relay, anchoring the team of Stephany Reaves ’10, Claudia Duncan ’11 and Annalies Gamble ’13 to a 9:01.33 mark.

    Princeton also won the women’s competition with 125 points.

  5. TRACK | Crimson, Tigers too much for Elis

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    The men’s and women’s track and field teams each suffered a third-place finishes to Princeton and Harvard in Saturday’s annual H-Y-P tri-meet of the ancient Ivy foes.

    Princeton won the men’s competition with 105 points, and Harvard took second with 48. The Bulldogs’ 27 points put them in third. The results followed a similar pattern on the women’s side: The Tigers racked up 90.50 points on their home turf to record the win, the Crimson tallied 47.50 points for second, and the Elis trailed in third with a 21-point score.

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    Men’s Highlights

    While the Bulldogs were unable to string together enough points for a win, individual athletes still posted strong performances.

    “Overall we didn’t perform as well as we could have,” sprinter Marty Evans ’11 said. “We’re a much better team than the score reflected. However, the meet did have many highlights that should not be overlooked.”

    David Smith ’11 earned fifth place in the shot put with a 15.40-meter hurl — a new personal best, while Mike Levine’s ’13 16.63-meter mark gave him the same spot in the weight throw. Yifan Chen ’12 notched second in the triple jump (13.26), teammate Reynolds Holmes ’10 finished second in long jump (6.76), and Eric DePalo ’10 notched a personal record for the season in the pole vault with a fifth-place, 4.50-meter leap.

    Yale had strong showings in distance events from Chris Labosky ’10, who jumped up 200 meters from his normal half-mile race to win the 1,000-meter run in 2:30.08. Jeff Perrella ’11 captured third in the mile with a time of 4:16.61, while teammate Kevin Brown ’10 trailed by less than three seconds and took sixth. The Elis also collected a pair of fifth-place finishes from Chris Ramsey ’13 in the 800 (1:56.71) and Max Walden ’11 in the 3,000-meter run (8:34.05).

    In shorter events, David Soiles ’10 won the 500-meter dash (1:05.38), while Evans and Matt Bieszard ’12 went two and three in the 400.

    “When Dave Soiles came from behind to win the 500 at the line, he showed the heart and competitiveness we all were able to rally behind,” Evans said.

    The team of Ted Galligan ’10, Soiles, Evans and Bieszard posted a 3:21.18 time in the 4×400-meter relay to clinch second.

    Women’s Highlights

    Middle-distance runner Kate Grace ’11 accounted for nearly half of the Elis’ points on Saturday, as the junior won the mile with a season-best of 4:54.61, before running 2:14.95 to win the 800-meter run, as well.

    “Kate Grace really came through for us, pulling off the double wins in the mile and the 800,” distance-runner Alexandra Cadicamo ’10 said.

    Grace has never run that double before, but she said she at least had an hour between the two races to rest and prepare.

    “It was a very exciting meet,” Grace said. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to do. It’s kind of a great feeling to pull it off and feel strong enough to do well in both events.”

    Annalies Gamble ’13 followed Grace to take third in the 800 (2:16.31). In the 200-meter run, Claudia Duncan ’10 finished second (25.85), while Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 (26.28) won her heat and placed fifth overall. Duncan also notched third in the 400-meter run, with a time of 57.45. Cadicamo ran a personal best in the 3,000-meter run, taking fourth place in 9:48.52.

    On the field, Emily Standish ’11 topped 1.65 meters in the high jump, and Jenna Poggi ’13 cleared 3.45 meters in pole vault to record her best attempt this season.

    Both the men’s and women’s squads compete next in the Heptagonal Championships, which will take place in Hanover, N.H., on Feb. 27 and 28.

  6. TRACK | Elis on track for ECACs

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    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.”