The men won the invitational with a whopping 288 points, 105 points better than second place University of New Hampshire. Dartmouth took individual firsts in 13 of the 19 events.
The women relied more on their depth and consistency, putting 31 finishers in 2nd through 6th place, snowballing points into a team score of 203. UNH was second, behind the Big Green by 138.
Men's track head coach Barry Harwick '77 jokingly attributed his recent trip to the Southwest as a contributing factor to the Big Green's success.
"I was in Arizona last week, so I'm pretty sure I brought the sunshine back with me," he said. "At least that's what I've been telling everyone."
The sun and breeze seemed serendipitous, considering the wretched weather that has plagued the track team and Hanover so far this spring.
"That's the challenging thing about track in New England," Harwick said. "It's hard to get excited about your best performance when you're dealing with snow and rain. So when you've got sunshine and a positive attitude, things are bound to go well."
Everything certainly went well for Rob Kerris '07, who won both the shot put and the discus. Kerris wasn't totally pleased with his distance in the shot put, but he set a new personal record by about six feet in the discus with an NCAA-qualifying throw of 173 feet, seven inches. His closest competitor from UNH was 23 feet behind.
"The wind helps more than you'd think in discus," Kerris said. "This is probably the first nice day we've had for a meet, and it shows in the performances."
Jamila Smith '06 had several great performances Saturday, taking home three first-place finishes in a hat trick of the throwing events.
Smith won the shot put, discus and javelin, securing 30 points for the Big Green. In the discus, Smith just barely edged out teammate Melissa Machaj '07 with a throw of 129 feet, 4 inches, just two inches ahead of Machaj.
In the shot put, Smith was ahead of Erin Moore of UNH by over two feet. But in the hammer, Smith outdistanced Moore by a comfortable seven feet.
Also turning heads at the Dartmouth Invitational was Ben True '08, who at the Sun Angel Classic in Arizona last weekend clocked a 4:02.61 mile, the second fastest in Dartmouth history.
True missed the record held by Sam Wilbur '94 by just four tenths of second, prompting speculation that he could break the record or even clock the illustrious sub-four minute mile during his time at Dartmouth.
On Saturday, True finished the 800 meter race in a blistering 1:50.66, 3.74 seconds ahead of second-place Harry Norton '08. True's time over the weekend ranks as the 13th fastest in the Big Green record books.
Saturday also marked the opening of new track and field surfaces and facilities for Dartmouth, which will play host to the New England Championships this year from May 10 to 12.
The event, which will feature over 40 teams from all over New England, will be the real test of the Big Green's new facilities. But Harwick said that he had already received numerous compliments and positive responses on Saturday.
From April 26 to 28, many Big Green athletes will travel to one of the biggest races of the season, the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pa.
The Penn relays are another tune-up competition for the Heptagonal Championships, the Ivy League championship meet, on Saturday, May 5, and Sunday, May 6, in Princeton, N.J.
