The Dartmouth men's and women's track and field squads turned in terrific performances Sunday at the Dartmouth Relays at Leverone Fieldhouse, with each team winning their respective meets. This marked the second straight win at the Dartmouth Relays for the men's team and a third straight triumph for the women's squad.
Before the revamped winter break, the Dartmouth Relays used to be the first race of the Winter term for the Big Green. Yet the six-week break gave the men's and women's teams more time to practice and compete, with sprinters and throwers participating in two meets before coming home to the Dartmouth Relays. Distance runners still began their season here at home.
"The first two meets really gave us insight and helped our competitive spirit," Janae Dunchack '14 said. "It gave the freshmen a chance to learn what college meets are all about to be prepared for the season."
The Dartmouth women's team (1-0) overwhelmed the opposition, scoring 185 points to second-place Northeastern University's 91. The University of Vermont, Middlebury College and Bridgewater State University filled out the top five with far fewer points than Northeastern's.
"You have the advantage at a home meet because while other teams may not be able to bring their whole team due to travel, we can bring in all our people," Dunchack said. "It's also definitely fun to have your floormates and classmates there to cheer you on, especially since we know the track and are already more comfortable on it."
A number of records fell in the women's meet, including the school record in the 60-meter dash, which was broken twice by freshman Mollie Gribbin '16. Gribbin first ran a 7.79 in the preliminary race already enough to beat the record. Then, in the finals, Gribbins topped herself, landing in first place and again beating the record with a time of a 7.76.
Another stand-out performer was junior miler Abbey D'Agostino '14. D'Agostino broke her own school record by about four seconds with a time of 4:34.15. This shattered the previous meet record and beat the other runners by about 18 seconds.
Other female standouts included Emmaline Berg '13 and Cathy Liebowitz '15, who won the shotput and weight throw respectively. Dartmouth athletes Katie Sullivan '13 and Kaitlin Whitehorn '16 also won their events, the 3000-meter and the high jump, respectively.
Dartmouth took the top two spots in the 800-meter race, thanks to standout performances from Megan Krumpoch '14 and Arianna Vailas '14, who finished within two-tenths of a second of each other. The Dartmouth women also pulled out wins in the 4x200-meter and 4x400-meter relays.
The Dartmouth men (1-0) also pulled out a win at the Dartmouth Relays, but the contest was much closer than that of the women's team. After battling back and forth for much of the day, the Big Green beat Northeastern by a final score of 128-113. Boston College and Middlebury (0-1) followed in third and fourth place with far fewer points.
Senior Connor Reilly '13 delivered a great performance in the 60-meter dash, winning the race with a time of 6.94. Dartmouth also claimed third in the event with a 7.10 from Brett Buskey '15.
"Having the meet at home definitely had an impact for us," Reilly said. "There's nothing like getting to sleep in your own bed the night before a race and getting to eat what you want at Foco before the meet."
Jacob Evanter '13 also performed admirably in the 60-meter hurdles, taking second place. He ran an 8.39 and gained eight points for the Big Green.
The shotput was an overall strong showing for Dartmouth athletes of all ages. Dom Filiano '14, competing close to his hometown of Lebanon, N.H., led all collegians with a distance of 15.58 meters. Filiano did not win the event, however, because Matthew Brown '05, a Dartmouth alum now competing for the Lone Pine Track Club, topped him with a throw of 16.72 meters.
Dartmouth also performed well in the 400-meter race, with Edward Wagner '16, Jalil Bishop '14 and Kevin Crowley '13 placing second, fourth and sixth in the race, respectively.
Coming down the stretch, Northeastern and Dartmouth were practically neck-and-neck. In the end, it all came down to the men's 3000-meter race and the relays.
"The announcers were calling out the team score throughout the race," Reilly said. "I had raced three times, but was done by around 1:30 [p.m.] so it was great to cheer everyone on."
Dartmouth essentially clinched the win in the 3000-meter run, where the team had four of the top five finishers. Although Dylan O'Sullivan '15 was run down near the end by Chris Zablocki '10 who ran independently of the Big Green he managed to hold onto second place, followed by Jon Gault '13, Tim Gorman '16 and Tony Anzivino '16 in third through fifth places, respectively.
"We knew the race was close and the 3K basically put us over the top," O'Sullivan said. "It doesn't change the way you perform, but it definitely gave us a little more motivation in the back of our minds."
The men's and women's track and field team competes again Jan. 19 in New Haven against Columbia University and Yale University at Cox Cage.
Jon Gault is a member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
