The weekend's competition proved tough for the men and women of the Dartmouth track team. The women's track team fell Saturday to the University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire, while the men fell to UVM.
Vermont won the women's meet with 74 points. UNH squeaked by the Dartmouth women by a single point with 54. Vermont's men finished with 97 compared to Dartmouth's 57.
According to Scott Bogard '98, both the squads were incomplete for the meet. "Most of our good guys sat out," he said. He added that neither the men nor the women tapered for the meet but instead they took advantage of the competition to get in a challenging workout.
This aside, however, several athletes turned in spectacular finishes. Women's co-Captain Kristin Manwaring '96 won the 3,000 meter with a blistering 9:32.79, more a minute ahead of the second-place finisher from Vermont. Also scoring points in the 3,000 was Lorrin Higgins '98 in third with a 10:39.22.
Pilar Rodriguez '97 finished second in the 100 meter (13.00) and 200 meter (26.70). Finishing second in the 100 meter high hurdles was Beth Knowlton '99 in 16.47.
Helen Sisti '96 pulled in a victory in the 400 meter intermediate hurdles (1:04.14) and was followed closely by Katie Johnson '99 in second place (1:06.78).
In the women's 1,500 meter Dierdre Milligan '98 took second place with 4:49.41, just ahead of Beth Crenshaw '99 (4:51.09) and Emily Hodgson '98 (4:52.30).
In field events, the women dominated in the discus, sweeping second through fifth places. Wendy Skelton '99 had the best throw for the Big Green (39.68 m) followed by Sarah Howald '96 (37.24 m), Sarah Hood '98 (35.38 m) and Alisa Antkowiak '99 (33.66 m)
Maribel Sanchez '96 said that the meet was typical of meets this early in the season.
"We don't race everyone, and people race in odd events," she said. She was not at all concerned with the team's finish since the lineup was so incomplete.
In the men's division, Sean Cunningham '97 had an exciting race in the 1,500 meter, moving from fourth to second just before finishing in 4:06.22, just 1.11 seconds behind the winner from Vermont. Scott Warden '99 finished in third with a 4:06.78.
Bogard had a PR in the steeplechase with a 9:40.75, beating the second-place finisher by over 50 seconds.
Also finishing well for Dartmouth was Gordon Spaeth '97 who had a second in both the javelin (140-6) and the 110 meter high hurdles (16.80) and a third in the long jump (6.05 m).
Steve Newman '96 took control from the start in the 5,000 meter and held on to win in 15:54.41. Also winning for the Big Green were Dan Niederjohn '97 in the pole vault (4.35 m), John Fernquest '98 in the triple jump (12.92 m), Damon Blechen '98 in the discus (44.38 m) and Jim Tuxbury '97 in the 800 (1:55.00).
In the men's four by 100 meter relay the teams from both UVM and Dartmouth failed to complete the final hand-off and so neither team finished.
The teams had athletes in action in another part of the country this weekend as well. At the Sea Ray Invitational at the University of Tennessee, women's co-Captain Amy Winchester '96 set a new Dartmouth record and threw an NCAA provisionally-qualifying distance of 50-3/4 in the shotput.
Also in the shotput, Adam Nelson '97 beat his former NCAA provisional throw by two inches with a 59-7 3/4. This throw puts Nelson among the top eight collegiate athletes in the nation for shotput. Nelson also placed in the discus with a 175-2.
Both teams look to focus their energies more this weekend as the women travel to the University of Massachusetts and the men compete in an invitational at Northeastern University, both on Saturday.
