The men’s track and field team finished seventh and the women’s team finished tenth at the NESCAC championships at Middlebury on Saturday. Despite the mediocre finishes, several Cardinals enjoyed individual successes.
Two days prior to her sixth place finish in the 1500-meter race at the NESCAC championships, Ellen Davis ’07 competed at Penn Relays, finishing seventh in her primary event, the 5,000-meter race, good enough to qualify for Nationals. Davis raced against a field of primarily Division I runners; her time of 16:28.22 is the fastest in Division III this spring.
“Ellen competed in Penn Relays at Pennsylvania and then competed in NESCACs, which was extremely impressive,” said Lisa Sussman ’09.
Mike Brady ’07 came in first in his event, the 10,000-meter race, on Saturday. Alex Battaglino ’07 was close behind, finishing in third, and Jon King ’07 finished third in the 5000-meter run.
“It was Mike Brady’s first time running the 10,000, so it was pretty exciting having him become the NESCAC champion,” Sussman said.
Sam Grover ’08 also had a great day, coming in third and seventh in the triple jump and high jump, respectively.
“We finished better than we did last year, which is encouraging, though we would have liked to score more points than we did,” Grover said. “We had a couple of athletes come and do things they weren’t expected to do, which was exciting. From here on out, the rest of the season just gets more and more competitive, each meet takes you to a higher level, so that’s exciting.”
Finally, Mike Moody ’10 won his fifth consecutive javelin toss.
“He’s [Moody] just been an all-star the entire season, and it’s great to have him on the team,” said Steph O’Brien ’08. “A lot of times runners are not good at supporting the field events, but when you have someone like Mike, it’s really positive. People’s spirits were high.”
In her own race, O’Brien came in fifth in the 800-meter dash, setting a personal record.
“We had a decent day yesterday,” O’Brien said. “We were very lucky because it didn’t rain the whole day, and I think that mentally that probably helped people stay positive. I was pleased with my own race, though I came in fifth by a couple hundredths of a second, which was frustrating. Not everyone raced up to their potential which was disappointing, but we have something to go toward for next year.”
In the 4×400 meter relay, Sussman, Abby Austin ’07, Kara Schnoes ’07 and O’Brien came in sixth.
“It was exciting because there were two seniors on our team and it was their last race,” Sussman said. “It was one of the last races of the day which is usually hard to get pumped up for, but we were inspired because we really wanted to pull through for them.”
The race was a success because it was evident that the Cardinals’ preparation had paid off.
“We’ve been tapering our workouts for the past week, and I think a lot of people saw results in increase in speed in their races,” Sussman said.
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