The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams began the winter season with successful showings at the Harvard Open on Dec. 7 in Cambridge, Mass., and at the Jay Carisella Invitational on Dec. 14, hosted by Northeastern University in Boston. Five Dartmouth women also competed at the University of Rhode Island’s pentathlon, where Janae Dunchack ’14 came in first place with 3,760 points, ahead of 19 other competitors.
Big Green athletes nabbed 13 individual wins at the Harvard Open. The event brought seven standout performances from Dartmouth men who each won an individual event. John Abraham ’16 and Edward Wagner ’16 led the sprint squad with victories in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash, respectively. Abraham also finished fourth in the 200-meter dash. Two freshmen, Jonathan Beering ’17 and Tim Brennan ’17, led the Big Green in the field events, winning the shot put and weight throw, respectively. Another freshman, Alex Frye ’17 cleared 2 meters in the high jump for the win, with teammates Nico Robinson ’17 and Jeremy Birck ’15 tied for second. Josh Cyphers ’14 won the pole vault, clearing 4.7 meters. Corey Muggler ’17 also topped the field in the long jump with a leap of 6.48 meters.
The Dartmouth women had six individual wins. Megan Krumpoch ’14 won the 800-meter dash by more than eight seconds. Jennifer Meech ’16 won the 200-meter dash in 25.35 and Elizabeth Markowitz ’16 ran 4:56.51 to win the mile. Teammates Meggie Donovan ’15 and Abby Markowitz ’16 finished second and third to complete the one-two-three sweep by the Big Green. The throwers performed well with Emmaline Berg ’13 and Cathy Liebowitz ’15 winning the shot put and weight throw, respectively. Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16 cleared 1.75 meters to win the high jump.
A week later, the women took to the track again in even more impressive fashion, with Krumpoch and Abbey D’Agostino ’14 each setting meet records at the Jay Carisella Invitational. D’Agostino competed for the first time since winning the NCAA Division I cross country title and came away with an 88-second victory in the 5000-meter run. Her time of 15:40.55 automatically qualifies her for the Division I indoor track national championships in March.
The Big Green men, including two freshmen, also notched three individual wins at the invitational. Muggler won the triple jump with a combined distance of 14.11 meters, while Phil Gomez ’17 won the 500-meter dash in 1:05.90. It was Gomez’s first time competing in the 500-meter dash, and he said he prepared by doing research beforehand.
“I talked to a lot of people and looked it up online but nothing really helped,” Gomez said. “They were just saying that it was like a 400 but you run harder at the end. My strategy was to stick with everyone else who was running it at the race and at the end I kicked it really hard.”
Cyphers won the pole vault for the second week in a row, clearing a height of 4.55 meters.
In addition to Dunchack’s victory, four other Big Green women fared well in the URI pentathlon, in Kingston, R.I. Lauren Ready ’15 finished seventh, Miranda Lawson ’17 came in eighth and Abby Feeney ’17 finished 14th.
After Thanksgiving the teams spent two weeks focused solely on training, using the break to schedule extra practices.
“During the academic year we often only have two hours for practice,” men’s head coach Barry Harwick said. “During break there was more time for technical training, weight training and the athletes were better rested.”
Track and field team members also spent time together outside of training. After campus emptied, they watched movies and played games together.
“It was really nice to hang out with the team,” Cyphers said. “We spent a lot of time getting to know each other better.”
In a season that will feature many home meets, including the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships in March, Dartmouth runners take to the track again this weekend at the Dartmouth Relays.
