The men’s and women’s track and field teams earned two new school records as they split up again this weekend to compete in the historic Penn Relays, featuring the Championship of America races, and the University of New Hampshire Wildcat Invitational.
At the University of Pennsylvania, the women set a new record in the 4x1,500-meter relay and the men clocked a record in the 4xmile race.
With gold watches and a large wheel on the line for the winners of the Championship of America race, the women went in hoping for a victory. The team of Liz Markowitz ’16, Dana Giordano ’16, Meggie Donovan ’15 and Abbey D’Agostino ’14 finished third, behind Villanova University and Stanford University in 17:20.87. The time stands as a Dartmouth, Ivy League and New England record, topping the 2012 Dartmouth record of 17:44.95 and the old New England time of 17:22.30 from 1991, previously held by Providence College.
The Wildcats and Cardinal crossed the line in 17:16.52 and 17:16.74, respectively.
Giordano and D’Agostino ran particularly impressive legs. Giordano finished her leg in 4:16.4, a 1,500 time that would stand as the fourth fastest 1,500 meter time in program history if it had been an individual race.
D’Agostino took the race home in the anchor position, running a time of 4:08.0, a time that would have broken her own 1,500 meter record by almost four seconds.
“It was really great to see Abbey trying so to hard to chase down the other teams,” Giordano said. “Everyone got good times which shows where our fitness is and that we are so close to those other teams.”
The women also ran the distance medley relay in the elite Championship of America section at the Penn Relays, where the quartet of Jenn Meech '16, D’Agostino, Liz Markowitz and Megan Krumpoch ’14 finished fourth behind Villanova, Stanford and Georgetown University. The Big Green was just .17 seconds behind the Hoyas, crossing the line in 11:06.31.
The Championship of America events are highlights of the meet, bringing together the best track and field athletes, women’s head coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said.
“Being selected to run in the Championship of America race is validation of what you have done all year,” Ford-Centonze said. “You go out and really compete because everyone is watching.”
The other group to compete in a Championship of America race was the men’s 4xmile relay team. The team competed without injured sub-four miler Will Geoghegan ’14. The team of John Bleday ’14, Silas Talbot ’15, Tim Gorman ’16 and Steve Mangan ’14 still set a Dartmouth record of 16:27.82, finishing in ninth place overall. The new record tops a 26-year-old record of 16:41.04 and stands as the second fastest time in New England history.
Edward Wagner ’16 took sixth in the 400-meter hurdles in 52.07 and then returned to the Franklin Field track for two relays. Wagner teamed up with Henry Sterling ’14, Lukas Zirngibl ’14 and Joe Chapin ’16 in the distance medley relay where the team finished 11th in 9:58.16. He also teamed up with Jalil Bishop ’14, Jonathan Brady ’14 and Phil Gomez ’17 for a seventh place finish in the 4x400-meter relay.
On the women’s side, Kumproch finished in 10th in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.48 and teamed up with Katy Sprout ’17, Meech and Aliyah Gallup ’17 to finish third in the Heptagonal section of the 4x400-meter relay.
Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16 finished third in the high jump by clearing 5-7.75 and teaming up with Sara Kikut ’16, Anna Kikut ’16 and Meech in the 4x100-meter relay to finish with a time of 47.29, good enough for 41st overall.
Competing at the Penn relays is a good check-in point during the season, and serves as a great experience for athletes due to its large scale.
“What they take from it is that, even though our league is a non-scholarship league, we can compete with all teams in the country,” Ford-Centonze said. “If we aren’t in a race, we are going to cheer for Ivy kids.”
Other members of the team competed at the University of New Hampshire and took the last opportunity before the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships to compete. Both the men and women finished fourth in the meet.
Highlights of the women’s meet included a one-three-four finish by the Big Green in the 1,500-meter run. Arianna Vailas ’14 won the race in 4:33.14, and was closely followed by Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17 in third and Abby Markowitz ’16 in fourth. Claudia Pham ’15 won the 5,000-meter run by seven seconds over Hannah Rowe ’14. The Big Green had four runners score in the meet, going one-two-five-seven. Ashley Ulrich ’15 and Erin McConnell ’17 placed fifth and seventh in the race.
The race was an improvement for Vailas, who finished 26th in the 1,500 at the Larry Ellis Invite last weekend. The women’s 5,000-meter team saw similar results two weeks ago at the first Wildcat Invitational of the season, as Pham, Ulrich and McConnell placed one-two-three.
“We approached it as an opportunity to get another solid race in before Heps,” Meghan Grela ’17, who came in second in the 800-meter race, said. “I didn’t want to just sit behind the front runner, so I made a move to try to push the pace.”
On the men’s side, Tim Brennan ’17 won the hammer throw and the discus and placed fifth in the shot put. Julian Heninger ’17 and Connor Clark ’17 finishing fourth and seventh in the 1,500-meter run, respectively. John Abraham ’16 won the 100-meter dash and Wagner finished in seventh, as he came up from a Friday in Philadelphia to compete. Wagner also finished in second in the 200-meter dash.
Both teams will take this weekend off to rest and train before the Ivy League Championships, which will be hosted at Yale University from May 10-11.
Ulrich is a member of The Dartmouth senior staff.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.
Correction appended: April 28, 2014
Due to an editing error, the initial version of this story misidentified the runners in the 4x1,500 relay. Liz Markowitz ’16, not Abby Markowitz '16, competed. Jenn Meech '16, not Dana Giordano '16, competed in the distance medley relay.Meghan Grela ’17 came in second in the 800-meter race, not first.
