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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Track and field hosts the Dartmouth Indoor Classic

Track and field saw some impressive individual performances at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic.
Track and field saw some impressive individual performances at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic.

Dartmouth men’s and women’s track and field recorded strong individual performances at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic this past Saturday at home in Leverone Field House. The Indoor Classic served as the fourth and final home meet of the indoor season for the Big Green.

Last week, Dartmouth sent a lot of runners down to Boston to compete at the Boston University Terrier Invitational. A lot of other athletes, however, got that weekend off.

“They were very fired up to compete this weekend and they had some great performances,” men’s head coach Barry Harwick ’77 said.

Women’s head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze seemed pleased with where the team was in its training leading up to the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship later this month.

“As far as our athletes, we had several PRs and some nominal performances, and it really looks like things are clicking the way we want them to, where people are running faster each week,” Ford-Centonze said. “They aren’t peaking yet, which is great because the Heptagonals are three weeks out. We’re very excited and hopeful that people will perform well there.”

Dartmouth swept the first three places in both the 60-meter hurdles and the 400-meter. Parker Johnson ’19 finished first in the 60 hurdles with a personal best of 8.21 seconds, according to Harwick. Finishing right behind him were Alec Eschholz ’19 (8.28) and Alex Frye ’17 (8.34). In the 400, Amos Cariati ’18 (49.77), Edward Wagner ’16 (50.13) and Zach Plante ’18 (50.15) finished in the top three spots. Tim Gorman ’16, with a time of 4:16.06, and Peter Geithner ’16, with 4:19.31, turned in strong performances in the mile with second and third place finishes, respectively.

The Big Green also recorded strong performances in the field. Corey Muggler ’17 won the long jump in a personal best of 24-6.50/7.48m, which moved him to fifth all-time in Dartmouth history in the event according to Harwick. Justin Donawa ’19, who also plays for the soccer team at Dartmouth, won the triple jump with a leap of 49-4.50/15.05m in only his second time competing in the event. Max Cosculluela ’17 also won the pole vault in 16-6.75/5.05m.

In the shot put, Lucas Ribeiro ’19 (51-4.50/15.66m) and Colin Minor ’18 (50-10.25/15.50m) placed first and second, respectively. Matthew Sindelar ’18 led a Dartmouth sweep of the top four places in the high jump with a second place finish, clearing 6-4.0/1.93m. Adam Couitt ’18, Frye, and Nico Robinson ’17 placed second, third and fourth, respectively.

“Everything just came together and clicked,” Muggler said. “It feels like I am finally learning how to transition my speed down the runway into good height on the takeoff. Hopefully I can continue to improve and score points for the team at [the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships] in a few weeks.”

Highlighting the performances on the women’s side was the double win by Sara Kikut ’16 in her final indoor home meet of her Dartmouth career. She took wins in both the 60-meter (7.68) and the 200 (25.18).

Kikut said that her goal for the meet was to have a solid performance in the 60, because she had been working on that event the most in practice.

“I am happy I was able to execute some of the technique I have been working on,” Kikut said.

Dartmouth also nabbed wins in the other sprint events, including wins in the 60 hurdles by Abby Feeney ’17 (8.94), in the 400 by Katy Sprout ’17 (58.53) and in the 500 by Marissa Evans ’18 (1:16.80).

The Dartmouth women swept the first three places in the 1000. Jennifer Cunningham ’17, who finished in 2:58.34, led the way. Marisa Magsarili ’19, second in 2:59.16, and Abby Markowitz ’16, third in 2:59.95, followed Cunningham across the line.

In the field events, Molly Shapiro ’16 won the triple jump with a leap of 39-8.0/12.09m and Allison Frantz ’18 won the high jump in 5-6.0/1.68m. Kaitlin McCallum ’16 won the pole vault with a 12-5.50/3.80m, short of the school record that she was aiming for, according to Ford-Centonze.

Also starring in the meet was Dartmouth alumnus Emmaline Berg ’13, who won the women’s shot put with a throw of 53-01.75/16.20m, more than 3.5 meters further than the second place finisher.

“Since it is an invitational, we could [let] unattached athletes — non-collegiate athletes — compete,” Ford-Centonze said. “[Berg] has already qualified for [USA Track and Field National Championships] and it was great for her to get a chance to throw in the winter.”

Both athletes and coaches viewed this meet and those prior as stepping stones towards the ultimate goal of competing well at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships held at Cornell University at the end of February.

“Every time you go into a season, there’s always that one goal, and that goal is Heps,” Ford-Centonze said. “We start talking about the Heps in September. The Heps is going to be a meet that everyone is going after and doing everything they can to win”

The track and field teams will split up next weekend as they begin their final preparations for the championships. According to the coaching staff, most of the runners will be competing at the Boston University Valentine Invitational, while the sprinters who compete in the 60-meter dash and the field event athletes will travel to compete at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ford-Centonze said that BU is known for having a track conducive to fast times and MIT is known for its nice throwing facilities, which influenced the decision to send different athletes to each event.