Propelled by a few strong individual showings, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams posted respectable finishes at the annual NESCAC Championships, which took place at Bates on Saturday, April 28. Quint-captain Tommie Lark ’12 defended his crown in the triple jump, beating the field by more than a foot and contributing a second-place long jump finish as well.

While Lark fell just a quarter inch shy of the 53-year-old school long jump record, LaDarius Drew ’15 set a pair of school records in the 100m and 200m dashes. Both records barely eclipsed marks set by Darrick Harris ’83 in 1983, but were only good enough for secondplace on Saturday.

Lark and Drew earned 34 of Wesleyan’s 52 team points, good enough for sixth place out of 11 NESCAC squads. Also contributing to that total were Lark’s fellow quint-captains Skyler Cummins ’13, Bryan Marsh ’13, Alex Iwamoto ’12, and James Dottin ’13. Cummins (third place) and Marsh (seventh) performed admirably in the 5K, while Iwamoto chipped in with a sixth-place leap in the triple jump. Dottin joined Drew, Jack Pacelle ’13 and Paulie Lowther ’13 to place seventh in the 4x400m relay. Chris Sailor ’15 also contributed to the team’s score, finishing fifth in the triple jump and eighth in the long jump.

On the women’s side, tri-captain Hannah Zimmerman ’13 won the 10K handily, finishing in 38:25:23, almost four seconds ahead of the second-place runner. Her improvement from last year, when she finished fourth, mirrored the team’s improvement, as the 43 points the Cardinals amassed (good enough for eighth place) nearly tripled their 2011 total. Freshmen Idara Foster ’15 and Heidi Hirvonen ’15 also had strong showings, finishing fourth in the 100m and fifth in the 400m hurdles, respectively. In the 4×400 relay, Julia Frieze ’12, Hirvonen, Geneva Jonathan ’15 and Kimora Brock ’15 beat their own school record, set just a week earlier, by a good two seconds to finish second.

Sierra Livious ’14 showed her versatility, finishing sixth in the long jump, 100m hurdles, and shot put. Frieze contributed a few more points by finishing seventh in the 400m, and tri-captain Julia Mark ’13 came in eighth in the 5K. Foster and Jonathan also added eighth-place finishes in the 200m and 400m hurdles respectively. The final tri-captain, Lia Monti ’13, led off the seventh-place 4x100m relay team anchored by Hirvonen, Jonathan, and Foster.

Both teams will travel to MIT this Friday for this weekend’s New England Division III meet.

About Drew Hudson

Drew Hudson grew up in the heart of basketball country, Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a huge basketball and football fan, but also loves golf, tennis, and the occasional baseball or hockey game. Drew also loves poetry, Cocoa Puffs, walks on the beach, rap music, and reading a good book in his Snuggie. His sports idols are Tyler Hansbrough, Steve Smith, Sean May, Baron Davis, and Julius Peppers. Drew one day hopes to write for the sports section of a major newspaper or sports network.