While the Dartmouth track team made the transition from indoors to outdoors during its spring break training trip in Arizona, the squad made its debut in the elements of the Northeast this past Saturday in Boston at the Tufts Snowflake Classic.
"The headwind we had was unfortunate," said Natalie Todd-Zebell '09, who took first place in the pole vault. "Being able to adjust for it gives me more confidence."
The invitational provided an opportunity for many of Dartmouth's track and field athletes to gain confidence heading into the rest of the season. Several first place and podium finishes were captured, and several personal records were broken.
The Big Green sprinters had an impressive showing. In the 100m dash, Brian Evans '08 dropped about three tenths a of second between the preliminary race and the final to take second place. Evans grabbed second place again in the 200m, with a time of 22.25 seconds. Charlie Stoebe '08 was close behind in fourth place, with a time of 22.60, a personal best in the 200m. Stoebe also took second in the 400m. Additonally, Stoebe anchored the winning the 4 x 400m relay.
Peter Pidermann '10 also won the 110m hurdles and the 400m hurdles, a particularly impressive showing for a freshman. Both times were personal bests.
"Yesterday felt great," Pidermann said. "It's always nice to see the training paying off."
On the women's side, Natalie Stoll '10 took fourth in the 200m and second in the 400m. Megan Ramirez '09 was second in the 800m.
"There is still a lot of room for improvement," Stoll said. "I need to remind myself that Heps is only four weeks away, I'm still getting used to being outside again," she added.
Heptagonal Championships serve as the Ivy League championship meet, and in outdoor track, they come particularly early in terms of the Dartmouth schedule.
In the field events, Dartmouth had five first-place finishes. Randall McKnight '08 took first in the triple jump, Robert Kerris '07 won the discus and Dan Ostrovsky '10 was first in the javelin. Kara Pydynkowski '08 was first in the high jump, and Todd-Zebell won the pole vault. Also, Jamila Smith '06 took second in both the shot put and the hammer throw.
Dartmouth left their distance squad at home this weekend.
"Most distance runners had the week off after competing last weekend in Arizona and because next week is a more important meet for us since it's at Princeton," said Pydynkowski.
Next week, the Big Green will see its first Ivy competition when it travels to Princeton, N.J. Princeton will also host this year's Heps.
