The men’s and women’s track and field teams defeated Ivy League rivals Columbia and Yale Universities in a tri-meet on Jan. 23 at Leverone Field House. On the men’s side, Dartmouth won with 89 points to Columbia’s 53 and Yale’s 39. The Dartmouth women won with 88 points over Columbia’s 50 and Yale’s 42. The tri-meet marked the third straight meet in as many weeks held at Leverone.
“There’s not really a lot of head-to-head competition between the Ivy League teams in track and field, so this was a rare opportunity for us to match up against Yale and Columbia,” men’s head coach Barry Harwick ’77 said.
Women’s head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze echoed similar sentiments.
“The level of intensity this week was much higher since we were competing against two Ivies,” Ford-Centonze said.
The Big Green women recorded victories in two events from both Jen Meech ’16 and Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16. Meech won the 200-meter in 24.75 seconds and 400-meter in 55.82 seconds, while Whitehorn took home wins in the 60-meter dash in 7.58 seconds and the high jump with 5-7.0-feet/1.70-meter.
Whitehorn mentioned that while the team did not rest or taper for the meet, she was still pleased with both her own performance and those of the team.
“The meet went well in terms of team scoring, but individually we still have much to work on,” Whitehorn said. “We didn’t rest in preparation for the meet, a point to be considered when reflecting on individual performances. However, if we can finish first against Yale and Columbia while tired, we can definitely finish first at [the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships] with rest.”
The women’s team also received victories on the track from Aliyah Gallup ’17 in the 500-meter with 1:15.57 and the 4x400-meter relay team of Marissa Evans ’18, Kayla Gilding ’19, Katy Sprout ’17 and Allison Frantz ’18, which won in 3:52.54.
Gilding also took home the long jump title, soaring to 17-8.0-feet/5.38-meter. Amelia Ali ’19 won the weight throw in 50-0.75-feet/15.26-meter and placed second in the shot put with a 38-10.50-foot/11.85-meter throw.
The Big Green men received wins on the track from Lloyd May ’18 in the 200-meter in 22.57 seconds, Amos Cariati ’18 in the 500-meter in 1:05.45, Joey Chapin ’16 in the mile in 4:19.64 and Pat Gregory ’18 in the 3000-meter in 8:27.00.
“It was a solid rust buster and I think it was a good tune up for the bigger meets to come in Boston,” Gregory said of his win in the 3000-meter. “Plus, it’s always great to run and win against other Ivy League teams.”
Dartmouth received five individual wins in the field events from Max Cosculluela ’17 in the pole vault with 16-00.75-feet/4.90-meter, Nico Robinson ’17 in the long jump with 22-4.5-feet/6.82-meter, Corey Muggler ’17 in the triple jump with 49-9.0-feet/15.16-meter, Lucas Ribeiro ’19 in the shot put with 54-04.75-feet/16.58-meter and Colin Minor ’18 in the weight throw with 56-0.0-feet/17.07-meter.
Both coaches were especially pleased with how the freshmen athletes performed. Harwick pointed out that the team also benefitted from the debut performance of Justin Donawa ’19, who is also a member of the soccer team at Dartmouth.
“[Donawa] jumped over 47 feet in the triple jump with just a week’s worth of practice,” Harwick said. “He’ll form a great 1-2 with Corey Muggler in the triple jump for us.”
The teams came off of a team victory against the University of Maine and the University of Vermont one week prior on Jan. 16. The men’s team won with 83 points and the women’s team won with 87 points.
“For some athletes that weren’t quite ready to jump in and compete at the Dartmouth Relays, [the meet against Maine and Vermont] was good chance for us to give them a chance to compete,” Harwick said.
The coaching staff emphasized how important and convenient competing at Leverone is to the teams. In addition to the familiarity of the location, they also emphasized how running on a supposedly slower flat track such as Leverone’s as opposed to a faster banked one can actually benefit the athletes. Meets on slower flat tracks are converted in order to standardize them to times run on banked tracks.
“Next week, when we go to [Boston University], which is a banked track, we can use our seed times from our track and we get better seed times that will put us in better heats and give us a better chance,” Ford-Centonze said.
Although Hanover avoided the blizzard that hit much of the northeastern United States this past weekend, the Columbia team was forced to stay in Hanover an extra night because of the snow in New York, Harwick said.
According to the coaching staff, next weekend, the teams will split up, with some of the athletes going to Boston University’s Terrier Classic and the throwers going to compete at the University of New Hampshire. The women will compete at the Terrier Classic on Friday, Jan. 29, while the men will compete on Saturday, Jan. 30. The throwers will compete at New Hampshire on Jan. 30 as well.
