I sat down with Brendan Norris '12 and Nick Resendes '12 to talk about the world of Dartmouth track and field.
It seems like you guys are competing all year round when are you technically considered to be in-season?
NR: Technically we are in-season in the winter and the spring, but we are practicing all year, even during the summer.
BN: Well, the cross-country guys are in-season fall, winter and spring. I am a middle-distance runner and I don't run cross-country, so I am in-season in the winter and spring.
How does scoring in meets work with all the different events?
NR: Within each event, the top six score points, and the amount of points varies with your place.
BN: You add up all the points and whichever team hasn't gotten on their bus and left yet by the time every event has been scored wins.
What are all the different events?
NR: Track is basically broken down into four event groups: jumps, throw, sprints and distance. Then within each of those there are different forms of each.
BN: Yeah, in outdoor track, which is the most important season, there is, like Nick said, the 100 [meter], 200, 400, 800, 1,500, 5,000, 10,000, 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, shotput, discuss, javelin, hammer, decathlon, long jump, high jump, triple jump, fried shrimp, shrimp kabobs, shrimp gumbo, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp sandwich. That's about it.
What kind of stuff do you throw? Anything you want? Are you able to hurl things at small moving objects with deadly accuracy?
BN: I'll leave this one for Nick.
NR: We mainly stick to throwing the actual implements at practice, but that doesn't mean I haven't hammer-thrown a broom or two at practices before. As far as deadly accuracy, I would say the guys with the most potential to do that would be javelin throwers the other throws events are not easy to be accurate with.
Are the results for the men's and women's teams considered together or separately?
BN: I could get myself in trouble trying to make a joke about this one. But separately.
NR: This is one of the unique things about track and field, I think how close the men's and women's teams are. It's one of the only sports where the men and women are able to practice side-by-side every day. At the end of the meets, we go over the results for both teams together. The teams are scored separately, but we are always encouraging people on both teams to do well.
There's a ton of people on the track team. How do practices work? Do all the different events practice at different times?
NR: The four major event groups all practice at separate times. Throws, jumps, distance and sprints all have their own practice schedules. They do occasionally overlap, however, and we are all in Leverone at the same time.
BN: Everyone practices at different times, and then we all meet in a circle once in a while and do a lame cheer.
Because you're not all doing the same stuff, do you feel closer to the guys who do the same event or is it basically all one team?
NR: I think that it's all one team. You practice every day with your event, but people have friends on different parts of the team, which is part of what makes the team get along so well.
BN: I think you definitely grow closer with the guys in your event group, with the exception of Alex Tarnoff ['12], who was shunned by the sprinters last year and took refuge with the distance runners.
For runners, what kind of margin of victory would merit an Usain Bolt celebration?
NR: I think you would have to have at least a 10- to 20-meter lead on your opponents it's not always a good idea, though. Jimmy Wyner, a runner from Cornell, decided to celebrate at last year's outdoor Heps and got himself DQ-ed and simultaneously booed by seven other Ivy League schools.
BN: Usually, if I am in any better than about fifth place, I celebrate for the last 200 meters or so.
Do you have any unique end-of-race celebrations?
NR: For throwers, our celebration is usually a barbaric yell at the end of our throw. It's usually a good throw if you hear a yell come from the circle.
BN: Vomiting, throwing my shoes in disgust and walking around with my head down for the rest of the meet.
How good do you guys expect to be this year?
NR: Cornell and Princeton usually dominate track, both indoors and outdoors. Our major goal every year is to look to compete with them, of course, and to be the best, but more realistically we look to go after third place.