After the long indoor season and a spring training meet in Arizona, the Dartmouth men's and women's track teams stepped out into the fresh air this weekend at Tufts University.
Despite using the event as a training meet and leaving a number of its top athletes at home, Dartmouth, led by double-event winner Amy Winchester '96, won five events.
Winchester won the discus with a toss of 42' 9.75" and the shot put with a put of 134 feet nine inches.
Also for the women, Jenna Rogers '98 won the 5000 meters in a time of 17.12.60 with the aid of Senior Kristin Cobb '95 who paced a pack of teammates including Rogers, Deirdre Milligan '98, Emily Hodgson '98 and Kristin Pierce '96 through the first two miles.
Rogers, Milligan and Cobb all finished below the ECAC qualification time. Rogers and Milligan both set personal records in the race.
Rogers said the race went according to plan. "Kristin Cobb paced us through two miles. I felt good and decided to go with three laps left."
Rogers said Cobb's pacing helped her stay within herself and not go out too fast over the first eight laps. The pacing helped, as Rogers broke her personal best by 23 seconds.
Cobb, one of Dartmouth's strongest distance runners, used the race to work on her pace for the 10,000 meters
On the men's side, the Big Green were led by discus thrower Alex Ghanotakis '97, who won the event with a toss of 167'3". The throw broke Ghanotakis' personal best and qualified him for the IC4A championships later in the season. Coach Barry Harwick called the Ghanotakis' discus victory "probably the single best performance of the day for us."
Also tallying a first-place finish was Dave Erikson '96 in the hammer throw. Erikson's performance was all the more impressive, since this was his first hammer competition of the year; the hammer throw is not contested indoors.
On the track the men received strong efforts from Will Uppington '96, who placed second in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:06.95, and from Wayne Burwell '97 who finished second in the 100 meters and third in the 400 meter individual hurdles.
The outdoor season will provide new challenges for the Big Green as new events are added to the slate, most notably the discus and hammer throw where Dartmouth excelled this weekend.
Also added is the steeplechase, where returning distance runners Sam Wilbur '94, Jack Dwyer '96 and Aaron Bouplon'95 took three of the top six places at last year's Heptagonal Championships.
Harwick said the movement from the indoor to the outdoor season requires a "gradual transition." The teams used the Tufts Invitational to allow athletes who did not go on the spring training trip to compete in the first meet and to allow athletes to compete in events not contested indoors. Both teams begin the dual meet season this coming weekend at Brown.
