The Big Green had a strong showing in the men's 400-meter run with Jalil Bishop '14 taking first place with a time of 50.96, Edward Wagner '16 taking second with 51.06 and Jonathan Brady '14 coming in third at 51.45. Similarly, the women's team took the top three spots in the 400-meter run, with Jennifer Meech '16 placing first in 57.54, followed by teammates Alexandra Kurkul '13 at 59.45 and Hannah O'Flynn '15 at 59.62.
Contributing to the Big Green's success was Brett Buskey '15 who placed first in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.92, Lukas Zirngibl '14 who ran a 1:06.46 to finish second in the men's 500-meter run and Jack Terwilliger '15 who finished first in the men's 1000-meter run at 2:32.73. On the women's side, Lauren Ready '15 made Dartmouth track history, running the seventh fastest time in the 60-meter hurdles in program history at 9:19.
With just three weeks remaining until the annual Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, a sense of excitement filled the air when several Big Green athletes set personal records.
Toni Aguiar '16 broke eight seconds for the first time in her career in the women's 60-meter dash preliminary to take first place with a time of 7.97 seconds. Aguiar's previous best time was 8.11 and breaking eight seconds was a focus coming into Saturday's meet.
"This week we've had an unload week so we've been doing just a lot of speed stuff and haven't been lifting as much, so I think that's really contributed to it," Aguiar said. "After my race I stopped and looked at the score board and saw a .97 and thought, Oh no, an 8.97?' I thought I had run so much faster than that but then I saw that it was actually a 7.97, which was big relief."
Aguiar finished second overall in the women's 60-meter dash with a time of 7.91 in the final heat. Aguiar also finished first in the women's 200-meter dash at 26.24.
"You never know in a meet this size and also with smaller Division I schools exactly what you're going to see," women's head coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said. "But everybody's really stepped up. I've had athletes [break a personal record by] over a second today, like Toni."
Aguiar was not the only Big Green runner to set a personal record, with Jacob Evanter '13 clocking a personal best 8.22 in his second place finish in the men's 60-meter hurdles.
"Being at a home meet, you know what your routine is and you can stick to it," Evanter said. "I think it's a lot easier to win at home because you don't have other distractions."
Ford-Centonze said the Big Green uses the Dartmouth Classic to prepare for Heps, which will be held at Harvard on Feb. 23 and 24, and to give runners a chance to train by running events they do not normally run. Megan Krumpoch '14, normally a 400-meter runner, and Lindsay Walsh '14, normally a three-kilometer runner, both ran the 800-meter run. Krumpoch placed first at 2:12.81 and Walsh came in second with a time of 2:14.47.
Heading into the final few weeks of the season, both teams are gaining momentum, with the women claiming first place in both the Dartmouth Relays, with 185 points, and the Yale tri-meet, with 76 points. The men's team also won both meets in January, taking first at the Dartmouth Relays, with 128 points, as well as in New Haven, with 77 Points.
Next week the teams travel to Boston University to compete in the Valentine's Invitational. This meet will determine which runners will compete in Heps for the Big Green.
