Six members of the men’s track team and one woman finished in first place at Saturday’s Little Three meet in Amherst, as the men’s team finished second and the women placed third.

Matt Moss ’05 led the way for the Cardinals, finishing first in the 800m race (1:57.33), less than one second ahead of the second place finisher, Nik Gavelis ’08 (1:58.17). Moss and Gavelis also joined forces with Andres Rosario ’07 and Chris Greene ’08 to claim victory in the 4x400m relay (3:31), continuing Cardinal domination in relays. Last week, four school relay records fell at the Elmer Swanson Invitational.

“Despite the abysmal weather, the men’s team managed to turn out some very impressive races,” said Nate Huddell ’07. “Nik Gavelis and Matt Moss both ran gutsy 800s and managed to finish 1-2 in that event, with Gavelis moving from last to second place during the final lap. Chris Greene also had a great meet, overtaking Amherst’s team captain to bring the men’s 4×400 across the line in first place.”

Dan McLaughlin ’07 took top honors in the 110m hurdles (:16.97), Sam Grover ’08 gave the Cardinals a first place finish in the triple jump (43-0 1/4), and Matt Wendus ’05 high jumped his way to victory (5-8). Nate Huddell ’07 finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:09), Joel Pratt ’07 tied for second in the high jump (5-4), and the 4x100m relay squad (Justin Freiberg ’04, Max Piana ’05, Matt Rankin ’05, and Taylor Bentley ’06) gave Wesleyan its sixth first place finish of the day (:44.22). The meet also featured an alumni race.

“The alumni contingent had a solid showing as well,” Huddell said. “[Bryan] Bissell [’04], [Andy] Comings [’03], [Vince] Buccola [’03], and [Jon] Kraus [’04] ran a meet record 4x800m.”

For the women, who have been plagued by injuries this season, Liz Colville ’05 provided the lone first place finish with a time of 18:07 in the 5,000-meter race. Erin Smith ’06 finished second 13 seconds later. The 4x400m relay squad (Stephanie O’Brien ’08, Abby Austin ’07, Penny Essoyan ’07, and Cara Chebuske ’06) also managed a second place finish in 4:23.

“Despite the weather, and despite losing to both Amherst and Williams, I think the women’s team performed very well,” Colville said. “In fact, I think the torrential downpour actually helped me. It was very encouraging that Erin and I were leading the 5k with two miles to go, and I’m glad we stuck it out and showed our prepster rivals that it’s all about quality, not quantity.”

Next up for the Red and Black track teams is the NESCAC Championships on Saturday at Colby. The men look to continue their upward trend and the women look to rebound from injuries and a bit of a down week at the Little Three meet.

“I’m very excited for the next few weeks of championship season,” Colville said. “We have a really strong team right now, both guys and girls, and Little Threes was only more fuel for our fire.”