The Big Green track and field teams, despite some excellent efforts last weekend in Boston, achieved disappointing results with a third-place men's finish and a sixth- place women's finish in the annual Heptagonal Championships.
The Heps are the only scoring meet for the entire Ivy League. This year, the showdown was held at Harvard University.
Men's Track and Field Coach Barry Harwick expressed disappointment with the Big Green's narrow third-place 86-point-loss to champion University of Pennsylvania and second-place Princeton University.
"This is my fifth year and this is the best track team we had," he said.
Harwick said Dartmouth's men competed in 19 events -- and were in first place after the first 14.
Amazing solo performances by many members off the Big Green men's team only made this third place finish all the more disappointing.
In a jaw-dropping tour-de-force performance, co-Captain Lane Burks '97 returned to action after a term-long hiatus due to a knee injury not only by winning the long jump with a distance of over 24 feet but also by setting a new Dartmouth record with that jump.
The biggest point-grabbing part of Dartmouth's team was the shot put. Led by Adam Nelson '97, the Big Green stole 20 points in this section alone. In addition to Nelson's first-place finish, there were also strong third and fourth place showings by Rey Hubbard '99 and Shaun McGregor '00, respectively.
Greg Johnston '99 destroyed all competition in the pentathlon, setting both a Heps record and a Dartmouth record. He also took a close second in the hurdles for the second year in a row besides strong performances in the long jump, the high jump and the 4x4 relay team.
Harwick said the team would be "even more ambitions in the outdoor season" after this third-place finish.
"Third place was an improvement for us because we were fourth last year," he added.
While the men's team improved with its third place finish the Big Green women's team dropped from last year's competitive second-place finish to sixth.
Women's Track and Field Coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said the team "basically finished right where we thought we would."
Ford-Centonze said this year's young team showed promise at the Heps and "showed we would be competitive in the league."
She said the women's team lost almost 60 to 70 points when the Class of 1996 graduated although the team still had some excellent performances over the weekend.
Jenna Rogers '98 captured the 5,000 on Saturday and placed second in the 3,000 on Sunday clocking 9:41.35 while Beth Crenshaw took fourth with 9:55.26.
"We're looking forward to the outdoor season," Ford-Centonze said. "We feel like we learned a lot during the indoor season. We'll go forward."
