The men’s and women’s track and field teams each had strong showings at Boston University’s Terrier Classic this past weekend, adding to the Big Green’s stellar start to the indoor season.
Going into this event, both the men and women had won their past three competitions, including the Dartmouth Relays, a quad-meet with the University of Vermont, Colgate University and the University of Vermont and a tri-meet with Yale and Columbia Universities. The Carisella Invitational on Dec. 13 marked the only competition in which both teams did not finish in first, with both the men and women taking second at the event behind Northeastern University.
The women’s track and field head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze said she was pleased with the results of the event, especially given that the meet featured Division I programs from several schools around the Northeast and some events consisted of more than 150 athletes.
“I think we went in with the right attitude, looking to continue to run faster as we’ve been doing every week,” she said. “That track is an exceptionally fast track. We accomplished the things we set out to do.”
The women took to the track first on Saturday before the men competed on Sunday. The women’s competition was highlighted by seven top-10 finishes, and the men’s team added six of their own on Sunday.
While the event was non-scoring, coach Ford-Centonze said the competitiveness at a non-scoring meet is actually higher.
“Programs don’t bring their whole team,” she said. “What you see at those types of meets are usually the top-tier of the team because they know the competition is going to be there. BU is a track where the coaches bring their runners because they know they’re going to get fast times on that oval.”
Dana Giordano ’16 handed the Big Green their only first place finish of the weekend, winning the 3000m in 9:07:28. She finished eight seconds ahead of the next competitor — Kate Matthews of the Boston Athletic Association — a professional competitor running the race.
Giordano said the pacer led her through the first mile before the Big Green athlete was able to pass her about two-thirds into the race to finish in the lead.
Other impressive finishes from the Big Green came from Jennifer Meech ’16, who ran a 55.02 in the 400m to take sixth, and teammate Erica Hendershot ’15 who took eighth in the 500m with a time of 1:15:09.
In the infield, Lyndsi Ross-Trevor ’18 and Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16 stood out for the Big Green women in their respective events. Ross-Trevor pole-vaulted to a height of 11-9.75/3.6m to claim a sixth place finish, while Whitehorn cleared 5-7/1.70m in the high jump to earn fourth.
On the men’s side, Curtis King ’16 finished fifth overall, but was the first collegiate runner to cross the finish line in the 3000m. King ran an 8:01.27, and was followed closely by Joey Chapin ’16, who finished in sixth just two-tenths of a second behind King.
“If [Joey] hadn’t have been there, I would’ve run an 8:05 or 8:06 since I really just kind of stalled out,” King said. “But, having him there really just I think brought out the best in both of us.”
Similar to the women’s race, the men’s 3000m also featured professional runners as pacers, including Ethan Shaw ’12, which King said was initially very intimidating to him and Chapin.
The 5000m run ended with three Dartmouth runners in the top 15 finishers. Nat Adams ’17 finished in 14:20:92 to take eighth place with teammates Daniel Salas ’17 and Brian Masterson ’16 coming in 10th and 13th, respectively. Another impressive finish came from the men’s 4x400m relay team, consisting of Ben Colello ’18, Nick Creasman ’18, Phil Gomez ’17 and Amos Cariati ’18, with the team finishing in eighth in a field of 59 teams.
Moving forward, the Big Green has two more weeks of non-scoring competition leading up to the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship. Having won three of their scoring meets, including the head-to-head matchup with two Ivy League teams, the Big Green should be putting themselves in good position for a strong finish to the indoor season.
“To be able to win those three meets, and especially to beat the two Ivy teams was great,” Ford-Centonze said. “It only kind of solidifies the direction that we’re going in and some of the things that we talk about when we talk about where we are in the league and what we think we’ll be able to do in the league.”
Next week, the Big Green will host the Dartmouth Classic. Coach Ford-Centonze believes this event will be a great opportunity for the sprinters to focus on speed, and for multi-event athletes to get a lot of experience taking part in several events, as many of them did not compete last weekend.
Events are set to begin at noon on Saturday in the Leverone Field House.
