The Dartmouth men's and women's track teams fared well during a busy weekend of competition. While the men traveled south to Boston University, where they came in a close third of six teams in a dual meet challenge, the women stayed home in Leverone Field House, placing second of four teams.
The Big Green men opened their season Friday evening with a third place finish against the University of Connecticut and Brown. UConn came in first with 86 points and Brown edged Dartmouth out for second place by a single point, tallying 79 points.
A number of outstanding individual performances were turned in to clinch the team's third place finish. Geoff Zawtocki '94 and Aaron Culliney '96 qualified for the IC4A's with first and second place finishes, respectively, in the 500-meter race. Zawtocki finished his race in 1:04.29, while Culliney finished in1:04.41.
Culliney said he was quite pleased with his performance. "I'm happy about the race, it was a personal record," he said. "Right now, I need to get stronger if I want to run a faster time."
Ted Fitzpatrick '95 won the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:18.82.
The mile relay team of Wayne Burwell '97, Tim Farrell '96, Culliney and Zawtacki won its race in 3:19.47.
The team of sophomores Brian Barry, Thomas McClure, Ryan Donovan and Jack Dwyer completed its race in 10:21.04. This young relay team appears to be a team for the future.
"Dwyer and Donovan ran outstanding legs," Barry said. "Based on this performance, we could be a team to compete with for upcoming years." The Big Green also turned in successful performances in the field events. Adam Nelson '97 and Kurt Cohen '94 finished second and third, respectively, in the shot put. Their performances qualified them for the upcoming IC4A's. Dan Heinhold '94 also placed with a pole vault of 14'11" 3/4.
The men's team will return to Boston University next week for the Terrier Classic.
The women's track team was equally busy Friday evening, amassing 31 points and a number of strong performances to earn the team's second place finish.
Though Northeastern University came in first, winning 11 of 15 events for 94 points, three of the four remaining events were won by Big Green competitors.
The team's 4x800 relay team won with a time of 9:33.2. Maribel Sanchez '96 won the 3000-meter race with a personal best of 9:52.95. Sanchez qualified for the Eastern Championship.
Kristen Cobb '95 won the mile race in 5:00.25. Though Cobb's time was off her personal best, she said she is optimistic about the season.
"I was looking to do a little faster, but it's early in the season," she said. "Hopefully the team will peak once we get some people off the injury list."
Cobb will be the lone competitor in next week's Terrier Classic.
The women's team is now 4-2 in its young season.
