The Dartmouth women's track and field team competed at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Princeton, N.J., last weekend, with several members of the team recording personal bests to conclude their season. The men's team also competed in Princeton at the IC4A Championship meet.
Leading the way for the women was distance-runner Laura Tabor '10, who set a new school record and a personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Running in the last race of her Dartmouth career, Tabor finished 16th with a time of 10:38.8. The time was a personal best and five seconds faster than the previous Dartmouth record held by Sara Lewicke '04, according to Dartmouthsports.com.
"I think that it was a personal goal to go alter the school record, which had been here for a while," head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze said. "[Tabor] was very excited about it and pleased that she was able to finish her career that way."
After a solid result at the Ivy League Championships, Tabor said she knew she had the ability to break the record.
"At Heps, I fell on one of the water jumps, and the girl who had been on my shoulder before I fell ran the old school record," Tabor said. "Then, I knew I could run somewhere in the 10:40s. It was always sort of a stretch for me, so to be able to cut off more seconds was pretty exciting."
Chrissy Supino '12 also had a career day finishing the 800 meter run preliminaries in 2:09.33 for the third-best time in Dartmouth history.
Although the meet was the last of the season for many of the Dartmouth athletes, Alex Tanner '11 extended her season by finishing sixth in 400 meter hurdles, clocking in at 1:00.24. The finish allowed Tanner to qualify for NCAA Regionals for the second year in the row. If Tanner finishes in the top 12, she will qualify for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., in two weeks.
"This year, I think [Tanner] will go in a little less nervous, because she has had an opportunity to run against better competition," Ford-Centonze said. "Her event is strongest in this region, but I think she's ready for the challenge."
Ivy League Champion Priscilla Trojano '12 also represented the Big Green and finished 12th as the Ivy League's second-highest finisher in the event, with Cornell's Karen Schillinger finishing in 11th place.
On the men's side, multi-event specialist Brett Gilson '13 finished eighth overall in the decathlon with 6285 points and earned Dartmouth its lone team point of the weekend. After finishing second at Heps last week, Gilson entered the weekend in hopes of improving his scores.
"I went in really hyped and excited about getting another chance to do the decathlon because I did so well at Heps," Gilson said. "I just wanted to step it up a notch and PR again. Although I didn't do as well as I wanted, coach told me that I would learn a lot from the meet, and it was a good gauge to see how far I've come."
Other Big Green standouts from the meet were Alex Lippai '09, who posted a ninth-place finish in the hammer throw, finishing with a throw of 57.66 meters (189-02), while Phil Royer '13 took 11th overall in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:01.12.
Although the main season has concluded, the men's team will send several competitors to NCAA Regionals to represent Dartmouth alongside Tanner. Captain Ted Lesher '10 will compete in both the long jump and the triple jump. Royer will compete in the steeplechase, Chris Zablocki '10 in the 10,000 meter race, Alex Lippai '09 is also going to be in the hammer and Chris Roe '11 will compete in the Javelin. The NCAA Regionals will begin on May 27th in Greensboro, N.C.
