This past weekend the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Tufts for what was undoubtedly their toughest test of the indoor season to date. Wesleyan certainly boasts some talented athletes on the squad this year, but the Stampede Invitational attracts many Division I schools aiming to assert their dominance. Despite this fact, it seemed almost typical that the Cardinals would rise to the challenge and put in a performance that was at times gutsy and at other times truly outstanding.
Special credit must go to Alexis Walker ’16, who was Wesleyan’s top scorer of the day, amassing nine points out of a total 35 scored by the women. Not only did Walker place third in the long jump with a 17-0 effort and set a new 60m record, timing in at :07.98 to finish sixth, but she also led the 4×200 team to a resounding first place.
“Tufts was a really big meet and going into it I was really nervous,” Walker said. “But leading the winning 4×200 relay and placing in both of my individual events as a freshman was more than exciting. My teammates are awesome and talented, and that showed in everyone’s performances.”
A few of these aforementioned talented teammates who deserve special mention are the other three runners in the 4x200m quartet, Lia Monti ’13, Geneva Jonathan ’15, and Idara Foster ’15. Monti also bagged an individual sixth place in the 200m, while Brock took seventh in the 800m. Just ahead of Brock in that even was Kate Cullen ’16, who took sixth with a time of 2:26.43. The women finished seventh of 24 teams on the day, a strong all-around performance.
“Our women’s team met most of the expectations at the Tufts meet,” Monti said. “We all hope to keep improving as the championship season begins after our last home meet this weekend.”
On the men’s side, there was also success in the 4x200m, where the squad of Luca Ameri ’15, Jack Pacelle ’13, Alex Ward ’16, and Paulie Lowther ’13 beat out both Conn College and Williams to take fourth. Other noteworthy top-eight finishes came from a pair of freshmen (namely Agbon Edomwonyi, who came in sixth in the shot put and Will Sawyer, who finished sixth in the pole vault) who are really taking this indoor season by the scruff of the neck. Though perhaps the men are slightly disappointed with an overall team position of 16th, there is certainly reason to be hopeful for the future.
“We’ve got a pretty good mentality about coming up short, in that we use it to drive our improvements that much further,” remarked a determined Michael Onah ’13. “There’s no regression in this bunch.”
Add to the equation that the men’s team is currently plagued by a multitude of injuries, and there is reason to believe ultimate success in this indoor season could be hard to come by.
Added excitement for both teams comes in the form of the Collegiate Track Championship to be hosted at Wesleyan on Saturday, Feb. 9. Though this is a non-conference meet for the Cardinals, they will unofficially compete.