The men’s and women’s track and field teams each notched several first-place finishes in the opening meet of the outdoor season. Although the meet was unscored, members of the Yale teams said that the William and Mary Tribe Invitational presented them with an opportunity to try new events, expand from spring break training, and begin the new season with a fresh start.
The women’s team listed many strong performances, both on and off the track. Nihal Kayali ’13 won the 1500, running the race with the sixth fastest time in Yale history. Both she and Sarah Barry ’14 qualified for May’s ECAC Championships with their times. Kayali called Barry’s performance a “phenomenal debut time for a freshman.”
Annelies Gamble ’13, Gabriella Kelly ’12 and Kayali placed one, two, three in the 800. Gamble and Kelly joined Allison Rue ’13 and Jenna Poggi ’13 in the winning 4×400 relay team. On the distance side, Jacque Sahlberg ’13 took second in the 3000. Sahlberg was one second off of first place and seven seconds off of third.
The Bulldogs also did well in the jumping events: Emily Standish ’11 placed second in the high jump, Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 placed second in the long jump, and Kristen Proe ’14 and Teresa Parent ’14 finished second and third in the triple jump.
“We’re getting used to the outdoor season and the elements,” Kayali said. “We’re getting our feet wet.”
On the men’s side, the Bulldogs performed impressively, on the personal and group levels. The meet featured eight teams, the majority of which were from Virginia. In addition to winning four individual events, they took first amongst collegiate competitors in the two relays, the 4×100 and the 4×400.
Captain Marty Evans ’11 won both the 400 and the 200, running the events in 48.40 and 21.37, respectively. Both times qualified him for the IC4A Outdoor Championship in May. Earlier this month, Evans competed in the IC4A Indoor Championships in the 200, breaking the school’s indoor record during preliminaries.
“A goal for me is to be able to contribute solid performances, week in and week out,” Evans said. “I’d like to be reliable and deliver, no matter who it is against.”
Following Evans on the 200 was Matt Bieszard ’12, who placed third and also met the IC4A qualifying time. In addition, Bieszard ran a personal record 10.91 in the 100, finishing second overall. Evans cited Bieszard’s “super fast” 100 as a highlight of the meet.
In his first collegiate attempt at the steeplechase, Michael Cunetta ’14 took first with a time of 9:50.21, almost 15 seconds ahead of the second-place racer. Another freshman, Miles Richardson ’14 finished third in the 1500 and was just half a second off first place. Off the track, Michael Levine ’13 won the discus. In the hammer throw, Levine, David Smith ’11 and Stefan Palios ’14 placed second, third and fifth, respectively.
The men’s team spent spring break training at William and Mary University in Virginia. They saw the meet as a chance to run new events, and to not be daunted by an intimidating itinerary.
“Every meet is an opportunity to compete,” Evans said.
The track and field teams will next compete at the Sam Howell Invitational in Princeton, N.J. on April 1.
When Johnny Van Deventer ’11 was handed the baton at Ivy League Heptagonal Championships last Sunday, he had no idea how fast he was going. Running the last leg of the distance medley relay, the mile, Van Deventer was so focused on the race that he missed his coaches calling out his time.
“The atmosphere was so electric and so loud that I couldn’t hear anything,” Van Deventer said.
Only at the end of the race did Van Deventer discover that he ran the fastest mile in Yale indoor track and field history — 4:02. Had he run at that pace in an individual event, he would have crushed the previous Yale record 4:04.45, held by Rick Wemple ’92 since 1991.
But that was not the only amazing part of Van Deventer’s run — it was the first time Van Deventer had ever competitively run the mile.
What’s more, this is the first season that Van Daventer has participated in since freshman year. He sat out the previous three and a half years due to recurring foot injuries.
“We were ecstatic,” captain Marty Evans ’11 said. “Coaches were jumping. Everyone was celebrating. It came out of nowhere.”
Van Deventer was recruited to run cross country and track and field from England, after placing second in the English Schools Championships. In his freshman year, he exceeded high expectations set for him and performed well for the Bulldogs. But just one race into the outdoor season, he suffered an Achilles injury.
“I’d never properly been injured in my life,” Van Deventer said. “I’d been very lucky.”
Van Deventer called it a “progressive overuse injury,” stemming not from a specific moment in a race but rather a buildup. It developed into something more serious, and Van Deventer stopped competing in hopes it would recover.
“The first race I missed was really tough, and it didn’t get better,” Van Deventer said.
It took six months for Van Deventer to be diagnosed. After following medical advice, including wearing an air boot for half a year that just led to new fractures, Van Deventer chose to take matters into his own hands. He took the fall of his junior year off, spending the semester at home trying to strengthen his fragile muscles.
“I’ve never witnessed a man more intense about anything than Johnny was about regaining his fitness, and running again for Yale,” Matthew Shipsey ’11, a close friend of Van Deventer, said. “It was honestly devastating to watch — he would go to every single meet to cheer on all his best friends and teammates, but it was killing him not being able to compete himself.”
When he rejoined the team in the spring of his junior year, he overdid it again. He fractured other bones in his foot and did not compete for the entire year.
“I’ve spent lots of time watching from the sidelines,” Van Deventer said. “I can’t describe how painful that was and how much inner turmoil that caused me, watching the team for three and a half years and not being able to contribute.”
Fast forward to this indoor season. Knowing that it was his last chance to compete for Yale track and field, Van Deventer invested himself in an intense cross-training regimen, which involved extensive “aqua jogging,” treading water and performing running motions in the deep end of the pool.
“That’s something I’ve gotten to do more than I would have liked,” Van Deventer said.
Van Deventer was committed to competing again. His coaches gave him the green light, and he signed up to run the 1,000-meter at the Giegengack Invitational in early March. Although he had never run that race before, he did not know if he could get through anything longer.
“What happens next, no exaggeration, is fast becoming folklore for all those who know the history,” Shipsey said.
Van Deventer delivered. He ran the 1000-meter in 2:31.00, taking 15th place. The next week he outdid himself, finishing the event in 2:25.64 and placing third. Had he run two-tenths of a second faster, he would have won the race.
At the Heptagonal Championships, Van Deventer was the anchor of the distance medley relay team, the second-to-last race of the meet. He had never run the mile competitively before, so he ran a time trial a week before practice. At that practice, with other teammates pacing him, he finished the mile in 4:14 — meaning that in the competition itself, he cut 12 seconds off his time.
“I’ve definitely been starved of competition for the last three years,” Van Deventer said.
Van Deventer constantly cited the great team dynamic as key to its ultimate success. He followed Julian Sheinbaum ’12, Christopher Ramsey ’13 and James Shirvell ’14. Sheinbaum and Ramsey did not qualify for the finals in the mile and the 800-meter, respectively, so, Van Deventer said, they came into the relay with a point to prove. Shirvell was coming off of a second-place finish in the 1000-meter.
Van Deventer started the mile in fifth place, but he immediately passed two other runners. He ran the first 400 meters in 56 seconds — so fast that his teammates and even his coaches were afraid he would not be able to maintain the strenuous pace. But Van Deventer did not falter, finishing 800 meters in 1:57, which Coach David Shoehalter compared to a “suicide mission.”
“I had so much pent up energy from three and a half years of watching on the sidelines,” Van Deventer said. “From that point on, it was holding on for dear life.”
At this point, his teammates were watching with nervous wonder. With 600 meters left, Shoehalter caught a glimpse of Van Deventer’s face and said that he looked “as determined as I’d ever seen anyone in my career.”
“He really looked like he was completely done, but he dug deeper and found a way to keep going,” Ramsey said.
With about 100 meters to go, Van Deventer heard someone on his tail. It was the runner from Brown. Van Deventer gave it everything he had, and soon discovered that he would catch up to the second place runner for Harvard. Racing to the finish, Van Deventer caught him at the line. The Bulldogs finished second with a time of 9:50.44 (to Harvard’s 9:50.71), giving them the fifth-best time in Heptagonals history and earning the team second team All-Ivy honors.
After the meet, coach Shoehalter sent an e-mail to the men’s track and field team detailing Van Deventer’s painful journey and unbelievable success.
“Yesterday, Johnny was thrust into a situation that so many of us have been in and he handled it with an aplomb and skill that were truly mindboggling,” the e-mail read. “He ran with a confidence that he had no reason to have. He believed. He shocked us all. … When the pressure was at its greatest, in the bubbling cauldron of the armory, Johnny Van Deventer put himself out there with no fear, and the result was legend.”
Van Deventer’s injury has still not completely healed. It has improved, but it still bothers him a lot, he said. While running, Van Deventersaid he was in serious amounts of pain, yet he still pulled out a 4:02 mile.
“I felt that because I was recruited, I had an obligation to the team and that a lot was expected of me,” Van Deventer said. “The time and energy the coaches invest in the program made it impossible for me to turn my back on it.”
With the outdoor season coming up, Van Deventer isn’t sure where he stands. He cannot attend outdoor training with the rest of the team — the facilities do not include a deep enough pool for his aqua jogging — but he plans to take it day by day.
“No one’s happy with our position from indoor Heps,” Van Deventer said. “If I could play a part in contributing in outdoors, that would be really special.”
Despite a slew of ECAC and IC4A-qualifying performances, the men’s and women’s track and field teams fell far short of an Ivy League title, placing last in the annual Heptagonal Championships in New York last weekend. Princeton won the meet with 128 points on the women’s side and 215 on the men’s side, to Yale’s 24 and 25, respectively.
“It was a disappointing meet overall,” men’s captain Marty Evans ’11 said. “But there were some shining stars and very inspiring performances that we’re going to rally around to catapult us into the outdoor season.”
For the women, Kate Grace ’11 once again displayed her running chops, winning the 800m at the Heptagonal Championships for the third consecutive year. She ran the race in 2:05.37, the fastest she has ever run the event at the championship meet. Her previous best time at the meet was 2:07.77.
Just an hour after finishing the 800m, Grace joined Nihal Kayali ’13, Sarah Barry ’14 and Annelies Gamble ’13 on the 4x800m relay team. They finished in third with a time of 8:44.54 and were the fastest Yale team to run the relay in 25 years. Grace ran her leg in 2:03, which bodes well for the upcoming ECAC and NCAA championships.
“There were really good chances for individuals to do very well,” Grace said. “We were banking on individual performances. In a sense, we achieved a lot.”
Kayali, who has competed strongly in several races this season, including the 1000m and 800m runs, placed third in the mile with a time of 4:55.07. Elizabeth Marvin ’13 also picked up points for the Bulldogs with a 9:38.18 finish in the 3000m. Also breaking into the top 10 were Gabriella Kelly ’12 in the 400m, Gamble in the 800m and Melissa Chapman ’14 in the 3000m.
“There were many underclassmen scoring and making it to finals,” Grace said. “It’s a good sign for next year and future competitions.”
For the men’s team, Evans took third in the 400m with a time of 48.06, setting a personal record in the event. Evans also competed in the 4x400m relay along with Nathan Molina’ 11, Chris Stanley ’11 and Matt Bieszard ’12. The team finished in fifth place with a time of 3:17.12, just .04 seconds behind Columbia.
“Placing highly, scoring points, and having fun were the only things I was thinking about,” Evans said. “There’s nothing quite like the fun of doing well.”
Evans said that the performances of James Shrivell ’14 and John Van Deventer ’11 were particularly “courageous and inspiring.” In the 1000m, Shirvell came from the back of the pack to ultimately place second with a time of 2:23.85. Shirvell also became the fifth all time fastest racer to run the event at the league championships.
Van Deventer, who has been dealing with injuries since his freshman year, anchored the men’s distance medley relay, running the mile. According to Evans, Van Deventer began the race at a “risky” pace, but closed a sizeable gap and brought the team to a second place finish with an impressive 4:02.
“[Van Deventer] left it all on the track and had a truly phenomenal performance,” Evans said. “It’s a testament to the heart we all aim to compete with.”
The Bulldogs will compete in ECAC and IC4A Championships in Boston next weekend. The Elis will then spend spring break in Virginia to transition to the outdoor season. Grace and Evans both said that historically, Yale has been much stronger outdoors.
“We have to work on competing with no fear or no doubt in mind, no matter what performances our competitors have had in the past,” Evans said.
In the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, held this year at the Bulldogs’ home, Coxe Cage, the Princeton men’s and women’s teams stole the show. On the men’s side, Princeton scored 114 points to Harvard’s 36 and Yale’s 19. For the women, Princeton scored 90.5, while Harvard and Yale scored 41.5 and 27, respectively. Yale finished third in the meet last year as well.
One bright spot for the Yale women’s team came in the distance races. This is all the more impressive given that Princeton is often a powerhouse in distance, according to Kate Grace ’11.
In the mile, Grace and Nihal Kayali ’13 took first and second, finishing the race with times of 4:39.52 and 4:45.04 respectively. Not only is her time very close to qualification standards for the NCAA meet in March, but Grace is now the fastest Bulldog ever to run the mile. She broke the previous Yale record by more than four seconds and the previous meet record as well. Grace said she rarely runs the mile — often using it as a means to get in shape — making her performance all the more impressive. Kayali’s time makes her the third fastest Eli miler of all time.
“Running the mile, I understood where I needed to put my focus,” Grace said. “I tapped into the mystery of running another race.”
Kayali and Grace were members of the winning 4×800 relay team. They were joined by Annalies Gamble ’13 and Sarah Barry ’14, who individually took second and fourth, respectively, in the 800. Elizabeth Marvin ’13 and Melissa Chapman ’14 had third and fourth place finishes in the 3000, proving the Bulldogs’ strength in distance.
“I felt there was a good chance of something good happening,” Grace said. “It was great to see results from practice transfer to meet day.”
Seniors Emily Standish ’11 and Stephanie Scaramella ’11 had strong performances in their last home meet. Standish took third in high jump and Scaramella placed fourth in both the shot put and weight throw. In addition, Amanda Snajder ’14 finished in fourth place in the 60 meter hurdles and Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 placed third in the 60.
In the men’s meet, the Tigers won all but two events — the 4×800 and the 500 — demonstrating their track prowess race after race. One disadvantage for the men was that they did not have any competitors in four events: high jump, triple jump, pole vault and 60 meter hurdles.
“We’re almost there,” captain Marty Evans ’11 said. “We’re better than the score reflected and what we showed at the meet.”
The Bulldogs scored in most of the events on the track. In his second time running the 500, Matt Bieszard ’12 earned a personal record, placing second with a time of 1:04.00. James Shirvell ’14 and John Van Deventer ’11 went two-three in the 1000, with times of 2:25.50 and 2:25.64, respectively. Evans called Van Deventer’s performance “very inspiring,” as Van Deventer hasn’t had much activity due to injury.
Off the track, Michael Levine ’13 had a season best distance of 17.60 in the weight throw, earning him third place overall, and David Smith ’11 and Stefan Palios ’14 each threw personal records in the weight throw.
Dana Lindberg ’14 scored for the Bulldogs in two events, with fourth place finishes in the long jump and 200. In addition, Julian Sheinbaum ’12 took fourth place in the mile, Chris Ramsey ’13 placed third in the 800, and Evans finished fourth in the 400.
“For runners, what’s important is running through the line,” Evans said. “Every single step counts. Every hundredth of a second counts.”
The meet, which took place last Saturday, was the last meet before Heptagonal Championships in two weeks. It also was the last meet at home for the current seniors.
“While I was running, I was thinking about all the memories I had and how I wanted to leave it all on the track,” Evans said. “For all the seniors, it was bittersweet.”
The Bulldogs hope their strong performances Saturday will carry over to Heps. For the next two weeks, they will go back to training and honing in on their technical skills and mental preparation.
“We’re very excited for Heps,” Evans said. “We’ve been training for this meet since July.”
The Heptagonals will take place in New York on Feb. 26 and 27.
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.
In the first scored meet of the season, the annual tri-meet against Dartmouth and Columbia, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams placed second.
Amidst many strong performances, including a number of freshmen who broke their personal records, the men’s team fell to Dartmouth by 25 points and the women’s team lost to Columbia by 12.
Saturday’s race was the first meet of the indoor track and field season against other Ivy League teams. With the addition of scoring, Elizabeth Marvin ’13 said there was more pressure going into the race.
“You’re not just running for yourself, you’re running for the team,” she said.
On the men’s side, Evans won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.87 seconds, the fastest time in the Ivy League this season and Yale’s second-fastest indoor mark of all-time. He also completed the 400-meter dash in 49.49, placing second behind fellow Eli Matt Bieszard ’12, who finished in 49.28; both performances were among the top five in the Ivy League this season.
The Bulldogs also dominated several field events. Dana Lindberg ’14 and Tom Winger ’13 placed first and second, respectively, in the long jump (6.57 m and 6.42 m); Yifan Chen ’12 and Samba Binagi ’11 placed first and second in the triple jump (13.34 m and 13.04 m); and David Smith ’11 and Stefan Palios ’14 earned second and fourth in the shot put (14.95 m and 14.34 m).
Other strong performances included James Shirvell ’14, who won the 800 meter; Daniel Jones ’14, who came in second in the 60 meters; Christopher Ramsey ’13, who earned second place in his first stab at the 500 meters; and Conor Dooney ’13, who placed third in the mile. In addition, both relay teams came in second.
The biggest gaps were found in the distance sector, with Bulldogs earning no points in the 1000 and 3000 meter races.
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“The longer distances are still building back up after cross country,” Ramsey said. “Not everyone is competing at their highest level yet.”
The Bulldogs did not race anyone in three events: 60-meter hurdles, high jump and pole vault. Ramsey cited the small size of Yale’s team as a disadvantage against the Dartmouth victors.
“[A small team] means that there is not a lot of room for error,” Ramsey said. “We need everyone who’s competing to do the best they possibly can.”
Evans said that the small-team dynamic came in part from recruiting issues. The team was currently in a “gap year,” as their hurdler — Ted Galligan ’10 — graduated last year.
“We can’t take any days off, we have to give it 100 percent every single race, and we have to make our individual efforts count,” Evans said. “If you’re a small team, you have to be a good team.”
For the women’s team, this year’s race was an improvement over last year’s. While in 2010, the Bulldogs lost to Columbia by 21 points, this year they narrowed the gap to 12.
“[The meet] was the first big gauge of where we’re at,” Grace said. “It is harder to get a direct understanding from an invitational.”
Yale started off the meet sweeping the 60-meter dash. Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13, Alexa Monti ’12, and Emily Shulan ’12 placed first, second and third, respectively (7.88. 8.09, and 8.22). This was just the first out of a series of wins for the Bulldogs; Elis won five out of the eight individual running races.
Grace won the 800 meter and mile, in 2:11.88 and 4:54.85 respectively. Both times qualify her for the ECAC Championship meet in early March.
Other impressive performances include Jenna Hessert ’14, who won the 500 meters; Nihal Kayali ’13, who won the 1000 meters, proving her recovery from last year’s injury; Sarah Barry ’14, who placed third in the mile; the duo of Elizabeth Marvin ’13 and Melissa Chapman ’14, who scored second and third in the 3000 meters; and Stephanie Scaramella ’11, who placed second in the weight throw and third in shot put.
“Overall, people were really going a good job,” Marvin said. “We gave Columbia a run for its money.”
The race, which took place at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York, was particularly important because it is the site where the indoor track and field championships will be held.
“We have to sharpen the small, technical skills, get better at the little things,” Evans said. “We have to focus on staying healthy and training hard, and on getting good performances that will help us later in the season.”
After the meet, men’s captain Marty Evans ’11 and Kate Grace ’11 were named male and female athlete of the week by Hepstrack.com, a site that monitors Ivy League track and field performances.
The women’s team will next race at Boston’s Husky Invitational. The men’s team will next race at the Boston University Terrier Invitational, at which no other Ivies will be competing.
After going six weeks without facing a single foe, the men’s and women’s track and field teams returned to Coxe Cage on Saturday to host more than a dozen schools for the College Invitational. While the meet went unscored and did not include any other Ivy League teams, the Bulldogs placed strongly in multiple events, and team members say they are eager for the season to officially start next weekend.
Freshmen on both the men and women’s teams delivered impressive times and distances.
Stefan Palios ’14 took sixth place for the Bulldogs in shot put with a throw of 14.74m. Daniel Jones ’14 finished 10th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.08. The distance medley relay team came in sixth place (10:14.67) in part due to the solid performance put in by James Shirvell ’14.
Demetri Goutos ’13, who is a distance runner for Yale, said Shirvell’s performance was the standout performance of the day.
Christopher Ramsey ’13 said that while team members did go home over break, everyone was expected to follow the team’s training schedule.
“It’s just pretty much a continuation of whatever progression you were on prior to break, so when you get back to break you’re ready to roll,” Ramsey added. “People take [training] seriously.”
On the women’s team, Amanda Snajder ’14 won third place (9.29 s) in the 60-meter hurdles. Kristen Proe ’14 took fifth place — 11.03 m — in the triple jump, while Teresa Parent ’14 took sixth with a jump of 10.89m.
The freshmen also contributed to top finishes in the relays. Kate Grace ’10, Jenna Hessert ’14, Nihal Kayali ’13 and Elizabeth Marvin ’13 came in first in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:50.04. Jennifer Downing ’12, Allison Rue ’13, Melissa Chapman ’14 and Sarah Barry ’14 finished just behind their teammates, in second with a time of 12:00.21.
Marvin said their first and second finishes qualify them for the ECAC Championships in early March at the end of the indoor season. She said this qualification was particularly exciting to get so early on in the indoor season.
Kayali said the fact that two teams in the distance medley relay finished at about 12 minutes or faster was indicative of the depth of the distance squad; she added the team did not have this depth in the past.
In the 4 x 800 meter relay, Sarah Barry ’14, Jennifer Donnelly ’13, Clare Kane ’14 and Anne Lovelace ’12 also took first in 9:29.90.
Sophomores Mike Levine ’13 and Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 also represented their class well. Levine threw 16.73m in the weight throw, while Jackson-Gibson sprinted the 60-meter dash in 7.81 seconds for a fourth-place finish.
Kayali said this meet was a good gauge as to where the team stands heading into scored competition.
Goutos added that the team performed better at this meet this year than last year.
“It’s important to try and go out and score points early on in the season,” Goutos said.
Ramsey described it as a “dress rehearsal” for upcoming meets, including the tri-meet against Harvard and Princeton on Feb. 12.
On Jan. 22, the Elis will face Columbia and Dartmouth in New York City in their first scored Ivy meet of the season.
On Thursday, a select group of athletes from the men and women’s track teams headed to Philadelphia for the 166th annual Penn Relays, where they shared the track with competitors ranging from high schoolers to professionals, including Olympians Allyson Felix and Usain Bolt.
Several Bulldogs took top spots in their divisions at the historic meet, which drew more than 22,000 entrants and 100,000 spectators over the three days of competition.
“It’s definitely an exciting meet,” Chris Labosky ’10 said. “There isn’t really a track meet, except for maybe the Olympics, that draws as many spectators. There’s a lot of pressure when that many eyes are watching you, it’s also cool to be around that many athletes that are so good.”
Anne Lovelace ’12 didn’t let the crowds get to her, winning the College Women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase by more than two seconds. Her time of 10.38.21 is a new personal record for Lovelace and is the second-fastest time in the event by a Yale runner (the school record of 10:29.40 was set in 2004). Although Lovelace already qualified for the NCAA Regionals, this time also would have qualified her.
Alexandra Cadicamo ’10 placed fifth in the 3,000-meter Championship with a time of 9:44.27, finishing just behind a Cornell runner. Her time was a new personal best and top ten in Yale history.
“I got pushed around a lot and ended up stuck in the back of the race fighting my way forward for almost three laps,” Cadicamo said. “Once I got up to the front where there was significantly less pushing and shoving going on though it was fun and coming in fifth there was exciting. It’s always good to get a good competitive effort in like that in preparation for Heps.”
In the men’s steeplechase on Thursday night, Matt Bogdan ’11 placed 14th in 9:17.08 and Nathan Richards ’12, who hit his knee on a barrier during the race, finished 17th in 9:27.31.
“Nathan and I have been able to just go to the front and run away with it in other meets,” Bogdan said. “There were 25 people in the race on Thursday so we had to work in a crowd which is something we haven’t had to do all year. It was not a great time but you could call it a learning experience.”
Jeff Perrella ’11 and Max Walden ’11 ran in the Olympic Development Men’s 5,000-meter race to finish 20th (14:33.94) and 36th (14:59.73), respectively.
The Elis found some success in the field events as well. Mike Levine ’13 finished third in the Championship division of the discus, out-throwing his previous best by nine feet for a personal record of 54.41 meters. The throw was the furthest by an Ivy Leaguer this season.
David Smith ’10 placed 21st in the Eastern division shot put with a throw of 14.61 meters and Eric DePalo ’10 finished fifth in the Eastern division pole vault with 4.80 meters. Rounding out the individual events, Reynold Holmes ’10 placed 20th in the Eastern division long jump with a jump of 6.78 meters and Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 was 26th with a distance of 5.28 meters.
The Bulldog’s relay teams had a number of impressive performances against tough competition. The distance medley team of Labosky, Remi Ray ’10, Chris Ramsey ’13, and anchor Conor Dooney ’12 ran the race for the first time in the outdoor season, placing fifth in the College Men’s division, beating fellow Ivy League competitors Penn and Dartmouth with a time of 9:50.44.
“Three of our legs ran extremely well,” Labosky said. “We were on pace to break the school record, right around 9:43. If [Ramsey] had been on that day we might have had a shot to win the race.”
The 4×100 meter relay team of Holmes, Marty Evans ’11, Chris Stanley ’11, and Matt Bieszard ’12 placed sixth in their heat and 37th overall out of a deep field of 87 teams in the College Men’s division to finish five spots away from qualifying for the College final on Saturday with a time of 42.22.
In the 4×400-meter relay, Evans, Stanley, Bieszard, and David Soiles ’10 beat Brown and Dartmouth to place fourth in the Heptagonal race — an Ivy-only race — with a time of 3:18.74.
The women’s 4×100 relay team of Jackson-Gibson, Claudia Duncan ’10, Faith Briggs ’10, and Kate Grace ’11 finished 61st out of 95 schools with a time of 48.31.
“The 4×100 is always hard because they herd you like cattle, make you take off warm-up sweats really early, and give you little time to set up before the gun goes off,” Briggs said. “But the adrenaline is wild.”
The team of Grace, Allison Rue ’13, Briggs, and Duncan returned to run the 4×400-meter relay later in the day, held against only Ivy League schools. Their time of 3:47.01, helped by an impressive 54.2 split from Duncan, put them in fifth of seven teams (Harvard did not compete) and in Yale’s top-ten of all-time list for the event.
Finishing up the competition on Saturday, the women’s 4×800-meter relay team of Annalies Gamble ’13, Grace, Nihal Kayali ’13, and Stephany Reaves ’10 placed seventh in a field of 25 teams with a time of 9:02.17. The men’s team of Ramsey, Dooney, Andrew Esposito ‘12, and Ray placed 33rd with a time of 7:56.13.
On Sunday, the Bulldogs returned to Yale for the Springtime Invitational held on their home track amidst rainy conditions. This unscored meet was the last for some athletes while for others it was a chance to see where they stand and prepare for the Heptagonal Championships, which take place May 8-9 in Princeton, N.J.
“It’s all about two weeks from now,” Bogdan said, referring to the upcoming meet.
The Elis who have qualified will be sticking around after finals to prepare for the ECAC Championships on May 14 in Princeton and the NCAA Regional Championships in Greensboro, N.C. from May 28-29.
The men and womens’s track teams competed in different states last weekend, each finishing third in their respective meets.
The men’s team battled strong crosswinds with a limited squad to take third out of 11 teams at the UMass Nine-Way Meet in Amherst, Mass., on Saturday, while the women’s squad finished third out of three teams at the annual Penn-Yale-Princeteon tri-meet at Princeton.
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In order to prepare for the rest of the outdoor season, the men’s distance team did not compete in Amherst, and many other members scaled back the number of events they participated in. This, combined with winds as high as 30 mile-per-hour winds, made the meet especially difficult for the Bulldogs, according to hurdler Ted Galligan ’10.
“The wind made conditions really tough for people competing in the long jump, pole vault, 400-meter, 400-meter hurdles and the 200-meter,” Galligan said.
Galligan took third in a close 400-meter hurdles race with a time of 54.82 — a mere .21 seconds behind the leader.
“I would have preferred to not lose by a couple of tenths,” Galligan said. “But then again, [the place in which you finish] isn’t that significant at a meet like this — if I had finished in 56 seconds and won, I would have felt much worse about it.”
Even without the missing competitors, Yale still had a strong showing in the field events. Eric DePalo ’10 won the pole vault with a jump of 4.80-meters, a foot higher than the reset of the competition. Mike Levine ’13 placed first in the discus with a distance of 49.95-meters and second in the hammer throw at 49.66-meters, while David Smith ’11 finished .02-meters behind Central Connecticut’s Rashad Williams to take second in the shot put. Reynolds Holmes ’10 took third in the long jump with a distance 6.62-meters, and Yifan Chen ’12 and Samba Binagi ’11 finished third and fourth, respectively, in the triple jump.
Remi Ray ’10 raced for the first time in over two months on Saturday, earning a strong sixth-place finish in the 800-meter run in 1:55.57.
The sprinters showed off their teamwork on Saturday by taking first in the 4 x 100-meter relay with 42.43 seconds. Matt Bieszard ’12 and Marty Evans ’11 took second and third in the 200-meter, respectively, while Holmes and Nathan Molina ’11 also finished together in the 100-meter dash, taking fifth and sixth, respectively. David Soiles ’10 placed fourth in the 400-meter with a time of 50.60 seconds — he was the only competitor for Yale in the event.
“Bieszard… [was] certainly the performance of the meet for us,” Galligan said. “He’s been training phenomenally and will be a significant player for us at Harvard-Yale and the Heptagonal Championships this year.”
The women’s squad also suffered from a lack of contestants as it finished third with 25 points.
“We just didn’t have as many runners in each event, which made it hard to score a lot of points, distance runner Elizabeth Marvin ’13 said.
Marvin finished fourth in the 3,000-meter — a race in which Princeton and Penn each fielded six or more runners against Yale’s three.
Despite being edged out of fourth place, which she held the entire race, at the last second, Marvin still finished with an ECAC-qualifying time of 9:50.78. Marvin beat her previous personal best by six seconds after a winter full of injuries. Anne Lovelace ’12, also posted a PR in the event with a sixth-place finish in 10:00.45.
The Elis had a good showing in the field events with Antonia Renker ’13 and Rachel Kuschner ’11 taking second and fourth, respectively, in the discus throw. Emily Anderberg ’13 also scored points for Yale, finishing second in the javelin throw, with teammate Eve King ’11 taking fourth. Rounding out the field events, Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 was fourth in the long jump, Emily Standish ‘11 finished fourth in the high jump and Jenna Poggi ’13 took third in the pole vault.
Alexandra Cadicamo ’10 had an impressive third-place finish in the 1,500-meter race with a personal record of 4:31.61 — only .17 seconds from qualifying for the ECACs.
Dakota McCoy ’13 raced in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles, finishing fourth and third, respectively, in the two events. Jackson-Gibson was fourth in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, with teammates Alexa Monti ’12 and Marieme Mbaye ’12 finishing in sixth and eighth, respectively, in the 200-meter.
The 4 x 400-meter relay team of Kate Grace ’11, Allison Rue ’13, Claudia Duncan ’10, and Poggi finished in 3:47.67 – Yale’s second-fastest time ever in the event (the school record of 3:45.85 was set in 2003). The 4 x 100-meter team of Jackson-Gibson, Duncan, Mbaye and Briggs placed third in a close race with a time of 47.92 seconds.
Grace traveled to the University of Tennessee’s Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., on Friday to compete in the 800-meter run against other nationally ranked runners. She finished third in the race with a time of 2:07.03, .13 seconds off the leader and three seconds ahead of the fourth-place runner. Grace came back to Princeton on Saturday to race in the 4 x 400-meter relay as well as the 400-meter dash, finishing second in the latter with a time of 55.98 seconds. This time was a mere .04 seconds off the ECAC-qualifying time and one of her best collegiate performances yet in that distance.
“The goal going down there was to get good racing experience so when I get to the finals and ECACs I’ve had the experience,” she said.
Next up for the Bulldogs is the annual home meet against Harvard on April 17 at the Dewitt-Cuyler Track.
The beautiful weekend weather pushed both the Yale men’s and women’s track team to strong individual showings at the Sam Howell Invitational in Princeton, N.J., including another Yale record set by All-American Kate Grace ’11.
With one event win, the Yale men established a solid base for early in the season. Mike Levine ’13 led the Bulldogs in field events by placing second in the discus throw with a 50.32-meter toss. Eric Depalo ’10 placed third in the pole vault jumping 4.85-meters.
The distance runners’ performances indicated that at least one runner will compete in the IC4A’s later this season. Max Walden placed 10th in the 10,000-meter run and qualified for the IC4A’s with a time of 31:06.55, while Jake McKenzie ’12, Conor Dooney ’12 and Kevin Brown ’10 were only several seconds away from qualifying. McKenzie, the only Yale 5,000-meter competitor, placed ninth (14:37.48) while Dooney placed 12th in the 1,500-meter run with Brown coming in 14th in the same race.
Dooney said that he and Brown are focusing on the 1,500 and hope to continue to improve together after spending the year training.
“Kevin and I have been training together all year so we have a good feel for running together at this point,” Dooney said. “Kevin led the race for nearly all of it and did all the work so I’ll probably have to repay the favor next time if I get the chance.”
Chris Labosky ’10 provided the Yale men with a win in the 1,500 meter race on the second day of the Invitational in 3:56.19. Max Brown ’10 finished close behind in second with 4:01.31.
Yale’s 4 x 100-meter relay team placed second behind Princeton (41.88), but ahead of Harvard.
“Our 4 x 1 improved by .11, beating Harvard handily, which is a good omen as always,” Matt Bieszard ’12 said. “Nothing too outstanding for us but we are where we need to be at this point.”
Bieszard also said that the 4×400-relay performed well, placing third. The men next compete at the UMass Invitational this weekend.
Also competing in the Sam Howell Invitational, the women’s track team set the bar high for the remainder of the season. Kate Grace ’11 won the 1,500-meter with a time of 4:24.57 and broke a Yale record set in 1991 by S.E. Smith. Anne Lovelace ’12 also won the 3,000-steeplechase in 10:40.96. Lovelace and Grace qualified for the NCAAs and the ECACs with their performances. Alexandra Cadicamo placed fifth in the 5,000-meters, also qualifying for the ECACs in the process running 16:56.87.
The second day continued with Elis winning three additional running events. Claudia Duncan ’10 won the 400-meter dash (55.44), and Grace notched her second win of the weekend in the 800-meter run in 2:09.94. Liya Assefa won the 1,500-meter race and said that the weather and strong performances from the Yale women made the weekend a success.
“I was happy with how my 1,500 went,” Assefa said. “Stephany Reaves ‘10 took it out at a good pace and then at the half mile I picked it up and just tried to finish strong. Overall, it was a great day out for running.”
The women will return to New Jersey next weekend to face off against Penn and Princeton.
The men’s and women’s track and field teams spent part of their weekends in Boston competing in separate meets a few blocks apart.
The men saw four more runners qualify for the IC4As at Saturday’s Terrier Invitational at Boston University. The meet was not scored, but the contest did provide an opportunity for the Bulldogs to face off against some of the Northeast’s top collegiate competition in front of a big crowd, and get back in gear for the heart of the spring season.
“The Terrier Invite is more of an individual meet than a team meet because we aren’t competing solely against Ivy League foes,” sprinter Dave Soiles ’10 said. “We’re competing to get fast times, so we can be better situated for the bigger team meets down the line. We came in with an angry attitude and a ferocious mindset.
Soiles delivered one of the top performances for the Yale sprinters, finishing sixth overall in the 500-meter dash, barely missing qualifying for the IC4As by less than three-tenths of a second. Marty Evans ’11 qualified with standout runs in both the 400-meter and 200-meter dashes, winning his heat in the 400. Fellow Eli Matt Bieszard ’12 also won his heat in the 400, placing 15th overall.
“Track typically isn’t a glamor sport, so it was fun for us to go run impressive times at a premier meet with lots of fans and nationally ranked competition,” Soiles said. “Our performances matched our excitement.”
Bieszard and Evans joined Remi Ray ’10 and Ted Galligan ’10 to take 11th overall in the 4×400 meter relay.
The distance runners matched the performances of the sprinters, led by Chris Labosky ’10, who took fourth overall in the 800-meter run. Kevin Brown ’10 also took fourth in his event, the 1,000-meter run, while Max Walden ’11 and Alex Harris ’10 both qualified in the 5,000-meter run.
The women, competing in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games at Northeastern’s Reggie Lewis Center, the home of the ECAC Championships. The Bulldogs finished sixth out of the 17 schools competing, despite having to run late into the night, finishing the meet around 10:30 p.m.
Like the men, the women’s team had a more individual approach to the meet.
“The team was mostly focusing on individual performances rather than overall team place,” Lisa Vienneau ’10 said. “People were competing in races that were not necessarily their strongest.”
All-American Kate Grace ’11 led the way for the Bulldogs, winning the mile in 4:56.34. Nihal Kayali ’13 took fifth overall , following up a strong performance in last weekend’s meet.
Adele Jackson-Gibson ’13 also had a big day for Yale, taking second overall in the 55-meter dash and fifth in the 200-meter. Fellow freshman Allison Rue ’13 took sixth in the 400-meter, while classmate Caitlin Hudson ’13 continued the big day for the freshmen.
An unfortunate accident in the 800-meter cost Claudia Duncan ’10 and Annalies Gamble ’13 a potential strong finish, as Gamble tripped midway through the race, taking down Duncan behind her and ending the duo’s bid for a high-scoring performance for the Bulldogs.
Both the men and women will be back in action this weekend, as they compete in the Giegengack Inviational at Yale’s Coxe Cage. They will be joined in the cage by some of the top schools from around the Northeast, making this weekend the second straight weekend that Yale will face off against the premier runners on the East Coast.
