The aptly named Tufts Last Chance Meet gave Wesleyan’s track and field team one final opportunity to make an impression on the indoor season. While the women’s team saw its chances restricted by injury, the men put on a performance worthy of the talents in their ranks. Bryan Marsh ’13 was the only Wesleyan competitor to qualify for the NCAAs on the day, after breaking the school’s indoor 5k track record. He will be joined by Alexis Walker ’16, who qualifies after having posted the 12th-best long jump in Division III during the regular season. Another notable performance at Tufts University came from the men’s distance medley relay (DMR) team, which shattered the previous Wesleyan record by 11.8 seconds.
“It felt great to get the record,” said sprinter Jack Pacelle ’13. “We knew we were capable of getting it by a sizable amount of time and we did.”
The DMR consists of four legs run at distances of 1200, 400, 800, and 1600 meters; in that order, it was run by Austin Cotant ’13, Pacelle, Sam Roth ’13, and Skyler Cummins ’13. The group timed in at 10:06.87, a time that may well have been worthy of NCAA qualification. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it was run on a banked track, the time was translated to a 10:15.13 for NCAA qualifying purposes, but it was still the 35th-fastest effort in Division III this year.
“We went into the meet knowing our chances for qualifying for nationals in the DMR were slim,” Cotant said. “So we just went to have fun and try to break some records. It felt great to break [it].”
With the men blighted by injury for large chunks of the indoor season, it was often the women who deservedly took center stage on the backs of some phenomenal individual displays. Though the mutual support between the teams is as excellent as would be expected from a group of Wesleyan athletes, the men will certainly take pride in their performances on the day, none more so than Marsh. Breaking the mark of 14:26.75 set by Owen Kiely in 2007, Marsh stormed home in a time of 14:24.45 to win the race. This also ranks as the fourth-fastest time in Division III this season. A consistent cross country NCAA qualifier, Marsh will appear at the indoor track nationals this coming weekend.
“It feels great,” Marsh said. “I felt like I had been slightly underachieving in the 5k for a while, so it’s a great run—a time I feel is representative of where I am in my fitness.”
Another noteworthy performance on the day came from Lia Monti ’13, who followed up her record-breaking 0:57.9 performance in the 400-meter last week with a very solid time of 0:58.29 to finish eighth. Cotant followed up his strong run in the DMR with a third-place finish in the mile; his time of 4:15.73 was just 0.59 seconds off his own Wesleyan record set a year ago. Special mention should also be given to Sierra Livious ’14, who would certainly have had a shot at making the NCAAs in either the pentathlon or the shot put had she not been injured on the day.
Looking ahead, the NCAA Division III Championships, featuring Marsh and Walker, will take place in Naperville, IL on March 8 and 9. After that, Coach Walter Curry’s squad will begin the real preparation for outdoor season—a chance for those who have yet to find top form to start afresh, and for high achievers to work to build on their momentum.
The new season brings with it a chance for everyone to improve or redeem themselves,” said Curry, “[and] finish the track season with a strong finish to an eventful year.”