Dartmouth's men's and women's track and field teams both gave strong performances at the two-day Sam Howell Invitational this past weekend at Princeton University.
Last week, both squads finished first of 13 teams at the Snowflake Invitational, held at Tufts University in Boston on March 29. In spite of gusting winds and extremely cold temperatures, Dartmouth managed to grab 11 individual win and looked to continue its success this weekend.
The Princeton meet was Dartmouth's second of the spring season and an important event as the team moves into the outdoor track and field season. The better weather and disappearance of snow served to reinvigorate the teams after competing indoors on artificial surfaces throughout the winter.
"The weekend forecast made it sound like we would be facing some tough weather, but it turned out to be completely off base," women's coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said. "This was great for all of us as everyone got psyched up to finally have some good weather to run in."
Several athletes got their first chance to compete in outdoor events and performed well after several field events were canceled at the Tufts meet due to bad weather.
"I was very pleased with our throwers," men's coach Barry Harwick '77 said. "They have all been working very hard and adjusting well to being outdoors."
Alex Lippai '09 recorded a personal record toss of 57.13 meters in the men's hammer throw early Saturday afternoon to secure seventh place in a tough field. Lippai's performance qualified him for the regional championship event, a feeder event to the NCAA national championship event.
"Alex didn't compete in the hammer throw until he came to Dartmouth," Harwick said. "He has worked very hard to get where he is and is improving in leaps and bounds as he continues to do very well for himself and our team."
David Irving '11 took fifth place in the men's discus with a distance of 48.64 meters, the biggest throw of his young college career.
Coach Harwick also remarked on the importance of the javelin throw as the team enters the outdoor season. The Big Green placed three throwers in the top 10 -- Dan Ostrovsky '10, Tim Wunderlich '09, and Chris Roe '11 with marks of 57.51 meters, 55.13 meters, and 53.38 meters, respectively.
Ted Lesher '10 placed third in the men's triple jump with a leap of 14 meters.
The men's squad also performed very well in sprinting events on Friday, Tyler Koskenoja '08 taking third in the 110-meter hurdles and Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor '10 running fourth in the 100-meter dash.
Koskenoja ran a time of 15.03 seconds in the hurdles to set a personal record. He also took part in Dartmouth's third-place finish in the men's 4 x 400 meter relay race, stepping in for an injured member of that squad.
"I was very happy with my time in both events, especially since I'm not usually an open sprinter," Koskenoja said. "Our 4 x 400 team ran a great time considering the last minute changes we were forced to make."
Abdul-Shakoor sprinted to fourth place place in the 100-meter dash with a personal best of 11.01 seconds while running into a five mile per hour wind.
"I have been very impressed with Muhammed's performance so far this season," Harwick said. "This is his first year with the team and he has been a great addition. We expect him to break 11 seconds in the dash very soon."
Glenn Randall '09 stood out in the distance events, taking sixth place in the men's 10k race with a time of 30:24.54. He set a new personal record by a margin of over 40 seconds and is one of the Ivy League's top distance runners this year, according to Harwick. Randall, a two-sport athlete is coming off an extremely successful winter sports season during which he won the NCAA skiing championship in the 10k race.
Oliver Townsend '09 ran fourth in the men's 1500-meter event, recording the best time of his career with a blistering 3:50.91.
The women's team performed equally well over the course of the weekend, recording multiple personal records across the board.
"I was very impressed with our throwing events," Ford-Centonze said. "We had strong showings in the shot put, hammer throw, and pole vault among other events."
Emily Daly '09 took third in the women's hammer throw with an impressive toss of 52.83 meters, in addition to a shot put effort of 12.02 meters.
Daly was joined in the shot put by Christina Alexander '11 and Jessica Long '08, claiming three of the top 10 spots.
Erika Graham '08 and Hannah Raila '10 placed fifth and seventh in the women's pole vault with leaps of 3.55 meters and 3.40 meters, respectively.
"Erika and Hannah both performed very well after a tough event last week due to the weather," Ford-Centonze said.
The highlights of the women's meet for Dartmouth were undoubtedly the sprinting events.
Natalie Stoll '10 ran a lifetime personal best time of 56.86 seconds to take second place in the 400-meter event.
"It was so nice to have good weather," Stoll said. "The wind wasn't bad and the conditions certainly helped a lot. I felt very good about my race and was extremely happy to set a new personal record."
Alexandra Tanner '11 stormed to a victory in the women's 400-meter hurdles event with what Ford-Centonze called an "unbelievable time" of 1:02.65.
Dartmouth's 4 x 400 meter relay team ran second with a time of 3:53.43.
"I was very pleased with all of our relay teams," Ford-Centonze said. "We only had two practices to work on handoffs on Leverone's small indoor track, which is completely different from running outside. All of our relay squads ran respectable times and we are expecting good things."
Both teams will compete again at the Brown Invitational this Saturday.
"We may be mixing things up a bit depending on whether or not the Brown meet is a scoring event," Ford-Centonze said. "If it turns out to be a non-scoring meet, we may plan to have runners switch events to work on different aspects of their races. For example, we might have Natalie Stoll run in the 200 meter or have a hurdler in the 100-meter dash to focus on pure speed."
Looking further ahead, both coaches are hopeful about the teams' prospects for the Heptagonal championships in early May.
"Our men's team finished fourth in the indoor Heps meet during the winter," Harwick said. "I am trying to stress the fact that most teams keep the same roster through the spring while we are getting immeasurably better due to the addition of outdoor events that we excel in as well as several great runners returning to the team."
In order to do well at the championship meet, it will be essential to perform across the board and score points in as many events as possible. Dartmouth has made good progress on this front, scoring in all disciplines and continuing to improve everywhere.
"Teams that do well at the end of the season are balanced in all areas," Harwick said. "I am very comfortable with our teams' balance -- this is one of the most balanced groups we have ever had."
After the team season has come to a close in May, exceptional individual competitors can advance to the NCAA Championship meet through a series of qualifying events or by meeting certain time requirements.
"Right now, it looks like we will be sending at least two members of the men's squad to the NCAAs," Harwick said. "Tyler Koskenoja has qualified for the decathlon and Ben True '08 has returned to the team. We have deliberately not raced Ben yet in order not to start his season too early before Olympic trials begin in June."
Over the next few weeks, however, the teams plan to take it one meet at a time.
"We hope to continue improving by setting new personal records across the board," Koskenoja said. "Everyone really likes to finally get outside as that is what the sport of track and field is really all about. This week, we will be working on technical things as well as attempting to keep up our condition levels. Things are looking really strong since we have so much depth in every area and I certainly expect the teams to do really well at Heps."
