While the men's track and field team looked ahead to the all-important NESCAC Championships, coach Ethan Barron used this past weekend's Dartmouth Invitational to rest some key athletes and give the remainder of his team an opportunity to reach its top form.
Like the team's past three events, the Dartmouth Invitational was focused on individual times with no team rankings recorded. At first glance, times and finishes seemed to be lower than usual, but given the stacked field, the team's relative placement might not have been the best indicator of its performance.
"There is a difference between finishing first in a crummy meet and finishing last in a very competitive one," Barron said. "There was a lot of Div. I competition, and I think this was actually one of our overall best performances of the year. I think that when you compete against a strong, quality opponent, the quality of your own team will increase."
Despite the stiff competition and rough weather, there were several bright spots for the Jumbos. Senior Jason Galvin improved his NCAA provisional qualifying time, finishing first in the hammer throw (53.16 meters), and sophomore Dan Marcy added another first-place finish, winning the triple jump with 13.69 meters.
"I had a pretty good meet; I got my first college victory in the triple jump," Marcy said. "The conditions weren't that good, but I'm using these meets as a workout and trying to work on my technique."
Junior Jamil Ludd finished fifth in the 110 meter hurdles with an impressive time of 16:15. Senior tri-captain Trevor Williams also performed strongly, finishing second (56:81) in the 400 meter hurdles, and sophomore Jeremy Arak tied for second in the high jump with a distance of 1.88 meters.
Senior Kyle Doran broke the two-minute barrier in the 800 meters, running 1:59.73 for the first time in his college career. He broke out in the final 200 meters, kicking into high gear and turning in a negative split.
Junior Chad Uy ran a personal record in the 1,500, finishing 24th in 4:12.46 Freshman James Bradley and sophomore Nate Scott doubled their usual 400-meter distance and moved up to the 800. Bradley finished 10th in 2:01.01, and Scott followed in 2:01.59, good for 14th.
Senior tri-captain Matt Lacey, who sat out in order to rest for this Thursday's Penn Relays, watched Saturday's matches from the sidelines and cited a few factors in the decreased times.
"A lot of our primary athletes either didn't run at all or didn't run in their primary races," Lacey said. "[Junior] Josh Kennedy and I were rested for the Penn Relays and Trevor Williams raced in the 400, which he usually does not run. Also, we were up against a lot of Div. I schools, so the competition was definitely very high."
The team remains confident as it now looks ahead to the first major meet of the season and the first of the postseason, the NESCAC Championships. Some of the Jumbos, however, will be able to get in some practice before then, as several runners on the distance team will head down to Philadelphia this Thursday to participate in the Penn Relays.
"It's an opportunity for us to get some national qualifying times," Lacey said. "Our goal is to run hard and get great times, but we can't completely burn ourselves out for NESCACs."
The conference championships will take place at Bowdoin this weekend, and will pit the Jumbos against perennial rival and national powerhouse Williams.
"We're looking strong, but it's always an uphill battle [at NESCACs]," Marcy said. "Williams is always really tough competition for us, so it's difficult to say where we'll finish."
While Lacey, Kennedy and sophomore Chris Kantos look to the Penn Relays, Barron and the rest of the team are looking farther ahead to the NESCAC Championships.
"NESCACs are definitely our highest priority," Barron said. "We want to win those bragging rights so we have our eyes set on that meet before anything else."
If the Jumbos are to end their season on top, however, they realize that pacing themselves throughout the remaining major competitions will play an important role in whether or not they succeed.
"It depends on every person," Lacey said. "But personally, I want to make sure that I pace myself throughout NESCACs, Div. III Championships and Nationals so that I can still be running strong towards the end."
