Dartmouth track and field was in action this weekend, competing in the aptly-named Dartmouth Indoor Classic at Leverone Field House. The Big Green had a large portion of its athletes competing, and saw strong performances and continued improvement from many of them.
The invitational meet saw athletes from several other colleges come to compete, most notably Ivy rival Harvard. However, since the meet was non-scoring and the Heptagonal Championships are only a few short weeks away, the Big Green focused its efforts on individual improvement and progress.
Dartmouth had many strong performances over the weekend. Mike Carmody '08's 1:03.68 run in the 500 meters was one of the Big Green's best at the meet and the Ivy's best mark so far this season. Mike also leads all Ivy athletes in the 800 meters.
"Mike Carmody had the performance of the meet," said men's coach Barry Harwick '77. "His time of 1:03.68 is the best in the Ivy League this year and second on Dartmouth's all-time list. He is an incredibly versatile runner who can compete at every distance from the 400 to the mile."
Dartmouth dominated the 400-meter run, as Charlie Stoebe '08 won the event in 50:54 and Ricky Cedrone '07, Calvin Richardson '06, David Berman '09, Julian Thomas '09 and Jamal Brown '08 all combined to run within a half-second of each other and take third through seventh place in the event, respectively.
Dartmouth dominated the short sprints as well, sweeping the top three in the 60-meter hurdles and taking second through fourth in the 60-meter dash. Ikechi Ogbonna '06 won the hurdles in 8.16 seconds, followed by Chris Dupre '06 and Tim Wunderlich '09 in 8.52 and 8.78, respectively.
In the 60-meter dash, Fatih Stanley '06 narrowly edged out Ogbonna to take second as both finished in 7.03 seconds, and Brian Evans '08 came in at 7.15 to take fourth behind them. Kemar Brown '06 of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute won the dash in 6.98.
"[Ogbonna and Stanley] were disappointed with their times; both these guys have run under seven [seconds]," said sprints and women's head coach Sandra Ford-Centonze. "But they were both close to their [personal bests] and they're right where they need to be at this point in the season."
The mile also had several strong finishes, with Alec Wall '08 winning the event in 4:14:21, and Jeff Englehutt '07 right on his heels, taking second in 4:14.65. Grant Allen '08 took fourth in 4:19.30.
"We had some of our distance runners drop down to the mile for some speed work and Alec Wall '08 and Jeff Englehutt '07 did a great job with that," said Harwick.
Other winners for the Big Green included Randy McKnight '08 in the long jump with a jump of 21'08.75" and Rob Kerris '07 in the shot put with a season-best 52'05.25" throw.
The Lady Green had strong showings in several events as well, highlighted by Dartmouth taking four of the top five places in the long jump. Mattie Chatterton-Richmond '06 won the long jump, leaping 17'09.75", while Micaela Carwell '08, Kelsey Wiegmann '06 and Jadah Chatterton-Richmond '07 jumped 17'05.25," 17'04.75" and 16'10.00" to take second, third and fifth, respectively.
Dartmouth also posted strong finishes in the high jump and pole vault. Wiegmann won the high jump with a 5'08.00" clearance, and Tara McNerney '09 cleared the same height in more attempts to come in second.
In the pole vault, Erika Graham '08 and Natalie Todd-Zebell '09 both cleared 11'06.25" in multiple attempts to take second and fourth, respectively.
Also victorious for the Lady Green, Jamila Smith '06 won the weight throw with a 50'07.50" toss. She also took third in the shot put with a throw of 43'02.50."
The women also saw solid improvement in performances by Victoria Michelotti '08 in the hurdles, whose time of 9.17 seconds was several tenths of a second faster than any of her runs this season, and by Lydia Blandy '06 in the 800-meter run, who continued her string of strong races with a 2:16.03 effort.
With the Indoor Classic complete, Dartmouth's athletes can look forward to next competing at Leverone for the Ivy League title. The Heptagonal Championships will be held here at Leverone Field House the last weekend of February in what promises to be an exciting two days of competition.
"Preparations for Heps are going very well and we hope that the Dartmouth community really comes out to support the team on Feb. 25-26," Harwick said.
The team will return to Boston University next weekend, competing in the Valentine's Invitational. The meet is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Boston University's Track & Tennis Center.
