The track teams performed slightly under their capabilities at the Little Three meet on Saturday, held at Williams College, but several individuals shined and the men managed to salvage a second place team finish.
Pat Moffett ’04 provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships with a first place time of :14.80 in the 110-meter hurdles, currently good for fifteenth place in the nation. Moffett also claimed victory in the 400-meter hurdles (:56.33), and anchored the 4×100-meter relay crew, also consisting of Justin Freiberg ’04, Mshangwe Crawford ’04, and Taylor Bentley ’06, to a first place finish.
“The team came together well this weekend. We are looking good going into NESCACs. Hopefully everyone will be able to pop out their best performances of the year on Saturday,” said Moffett. “I won the 110-meter hurdles in a new meet record, but I was most proud of my win in the 400-meter hurdles. I have not run a 400 all year, let alone the 400 hurdles, so no one, including myself, had any idea how it would turn out.”
Dave Tudor ’05 claimed victory for the Cardinals in the javelin event, throwing 163 feet, 10 inches. Dan Mays ’06 threw exactly five feet shorter, good for second place. Tudor and Pat Barry ’06 gave the Derrty Birds a 2-3 finish in the shot put (42’10“, 42′ 7”), Crawford and Max Piana ’05 finished 2-3 in the triple jump (43′ 5“, 42′ 4”). Piana also finished second in the long jump, and Joel Pratt ’07 finished third in the high jump and 110-meter hurdles. A highlight for the distance runners was Ed Kenney’s ’07 seventh place finish in the 5,000-meter run.
“I just ran hard, and the time was decent, but it could have been better. Anyone who ran a distance event yesterday could say the same,” said Kenney. “This team is ready to pick up the intensity. I predict that we will do some damage next week at the NESCAC meet.”
Another highlight was Matt Franco’s ’07 gritty 3000-meter steeplechase run, a third place finish (10:47.37) despite a painful fall during the event that left him hobbling for a while afterwards.
“In spite of our distance team having an off day, likely on account of the Gypsy Wind that blew through Middletown Thursday night, we were luckily able to hold off Amherst with an all-around effort and some words of wisdom from Young Hova blaring from the bleacher boom boxes,” said Bryan Bissell ’04, who finished fourth in the 5,000-meter event. “But it will take more than an L3 victory over Amherst to inflict damage at
NESCAC next week. We’re gonna find out that only the Derrty survive. Thankfully, we’re as Derrty as they come.”
Esther Schlegel ’04 led the female Derrty Birds to victory in the 100-meter hurdles in a lightning fast :15.17, shattering the previous team record of :15.28. Schlegel also finished third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:07.53), and anchored the second place 4×100-meter relay crew (Morgan Philbin ’04, Abby Austin ’07, Rebecca Morrell ’06). Wesleyan’s other first place finisher was Kristy Williams ’06, who threw a career best 128 feet, 9 inches in the hammer throw.
“A preview of things to come was given by Esther Schlegel this weekend. While blowing away the little bit of Little Three competition there was, she also blew right into the record books as the fastest female hurdler ever to run at Wesleyan,” said Moffett.
In other action, Rebecca Weinstein ’04 and Jen Brown ’04 finished 2-3 in the high jump (both 4′ 11“), then Brown teamed up with Kalia Lydgate ’07 to finish 2-3 in the Javelin event (99′ 4”, 97′ 1“). Erin Smith ’06 provided the best long distance running performance for the Cardinals when she placed second in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:51.45.
Next up for the Derrty Birds is Saturday’s NESCAC Championship meet at Trinity, where they hope to show opponents what they are truly capable of.
Leave a Reply