Rain, wind and puddles weren't enough to hold back the Dartmouth's women's track and field team as they outdid all expectations with a third-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships this past weekend at Brown. The team scored 93 points to place behind Princeton and Brown, who tied for first with 116 points each. The men's team finished fifth out of the field of nine with 43 points overall.
"Dartmouth really showed it's spirit," team Captain Deirdre Milligan '98 said. "It became a test of will of who could compete despite the conditions. From Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon it was just miserable."
"Looking realistically at the numbers we thought we were going to finish fourth. We were fifth last year," women's head coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said.
"But the ladies just performed unbelievably. We had a great two days," she said.
Not surprisingly, Dartmouth's success came in the distance events on the track and in the throwing events on the field, areas where the Big Green have been particularly strong over the past few seasons.
Milligan stunned heavy favorite Meghan Moriarty of Brown to win the 10,000 meter race for the first time since her freshman year. With four laps remaining she broke away from Moriarty, defending champion Courtney Ebersole of Princeton, and teammate Kelly Keene '01, opening a10-yard gap. She maintained the lead and finished four seconds ahead of Moriarty with a time of 35 minutes and 36.66 seconds. Keene placed third with a time of 35:53.32.
"It was really a great way to end my Dartmouth career, to finish out the way I started," Milligan said.
Fellow women's captain Jenna Rogers '98 won the 5,000 meter for the fourth time in a row with a time of 16:48.58, seven seconds ahead of the runner-up. Keene placed third again, followed by Milligan in fourth.
Erin Dromgoole '01 took over the 3,000 meter race with 400 meters to go, finishing with the winning time of 9:40.6. Rogers placed third and Susan Ashlock '00 finished in fourth place.
Allison Cardlin '01 threw the shot put for a personal best of 47 feet, 4.5 inches, winning the event by over two feet. Sarah Hayes '01 and Cardlin placed fourth and fifth in the hammer. Kelly Miller '00 placed second in the discus and Sarah Jones '00 did the same in javelin.
For the men, Mike Cohen '00 improved on his last year's time in the 10,000 meter by more than a minute to finish just four seconds behind the winner from Princeton. His time was 30:27.67. Parker Pruett '01 won the steeplechase in 9:00.76 to record the men's only first-place finish.
Shaun McGregor '00 finished second in the shot put with a throw of 54 feet and sixth in the hammer. Damon Blechen '98 placed fourth in the shot put, but finished second in the discus with a throw of 157 feet. Greg Johnston '99 came in fourth in the long jump and 13th in the javelin.
All of the event winners for Dartmouth were named to the All-Ivy League first team yesterday, while those who finished in second earned second-team honors.
Up next for the Dartmouth track and field teams are the New England Championships. The teams will then send several individuals onto the ECACs (women) and EC4As (men). In that meet, some runners will have the opportunity to make it the season pinnacle, the NCAA championships held in Buffalo, NY June 4-6.
Rogers, Milligan, Dromgoole and Ann Devlin '99 have provisionally qualified for the nationals, which means they will be considered among a list of competitors from which the top 20 times will be accepted into the championships.
