The men's and women's Big Green track squads ran to a pair of third place finishes this past weekend at the two-day Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted this year by Yale University.
All the Ivy League schools as well as Navy compete in Heps. Princeton won the men's meet with 182 points, followed by Penn in second with 135 points and Dartmouth in third with 72.5 points.
The women's overall victor was Brown (144.5). Cornell took second (128), while the Dartmouth women pulled in 116 points.
For her strong performances, co-Captain Kristin Manwaring '96 was named the Outstanding Female Performer of the meet.
Women:
After the first day of competition, the Dartmouth women held the lead with 44 points, 14 points ahead of second-place Cornell.
The women's strongest overall performance during the first day came in the 10,000 meter with Dartmouth sweeping the first three places.
Kristin Pierce '96 snagged her first Heps title ever, finishing in 36:09.63. Teammate Dierdre Milligan '98 finished a close second with 36:14.62, while Emily Hodgson '98 came in third with 36:46.92.
Co-Captain Amy Winchester '96 had a strong first-day performance as well. Her victory in the shot put (48-10.25) was her seventh career Heps title. She also finished fourth in the hammer with a throw of 143 feet, just ahead of Alisa Antkowiak '99 (142-8), who finished fifth.
On the second day of competition, Manwaring led the way for the women with victories in both the 1,500 meter and the 3,000 meter.
In the 3,000, Manwaring slid past her opponents, winning in 9:42.15. Her 4:21.43 time in the 1,500 broke the former Heps record of 4:21.80 set in 1991.
Manwaring said she hopes to better her personal record at the ECAC's in two weeks. She is also hoping for a finish in the top three at the NCAA's in Oregon at the end of May.
Maribel Sanchez '96 also turned in a victory Sunday, taking the 5,000 meter in 16:49.02. She was backed by Milligan and Beth Crenshaw '99 who came in third and fourth, respectively. Sanchez also finished third in the 3,000.
On the field Sunday, Winchester picked up her second title of the meet, winning the discus with a throw of 155-3. She also finished fourth in the javelin (129-11). Sarah Howald '96 came in second in the javelin and fifth in the discus, bringing in valuable team points.
Manwaring said that the women were "happy with our individual performances." Although the team was somewhat disappointed with its overall results, she said, "no one felt they could do more" than they did.
Men:
The first day's events left the men trailing first-place Princeton by a mere two points.
Adam Nelson '97 kept up his success this season in the shot put, winning with a 59-11. Damon Blechen '98 came in forth in the shot put with a throw of 51-2.75.
Also on the field, Alex Ghanotakis '97 won the hammer with a 188-8.
Co-Captain Jack Dwyer '96 won the 10,000 meter Saturday by a 50-yard margin over second-place finisher Columbia. Dwyer finished in 30:15.08. Dwyer continued his strong showing on Sunday, finishing third in the 5,000 meter with a 14:31.57.
Also on Sunday, Jim Tuxbury '97 finished third in the 1,500 meter with a 3:49.81. Tuxbury's performance was his second personal record of the weekend. During the trials, he ran a 3:51.00, beating his former time of 3:54.85.
Steve Clark '97 had a notable finish in the high jump, winning the first Heps title of his career. Clark jumped 6-10.25 inches.
The team felt good about its performance as a whole. "We were pretty happy coming away with third," Dwyer said. "We've had a lot of injuries."
Dwyer attributed some of the success to the fact that several athletes turned in "big performances."
The team will take the next week to prepare for next weekend's New England Championships, which will be held at Tufts.
Dwyer said that most of the men will go to the meet in hopes of defending the title for the Big Green. The men have won New Englands for the last two years. Following New Englands, about eight of the men will compete in the IC4A Championships.
He said that while the meet is very big, "it's good to go down to see how we compare with the rest of the Eastern seaboard."
Manwaring said that some of the women will sit out for New Englands to prepare for ECAC's and NCAA's.
"At Heps we generally enter everyone in order to score as many team points as possible," she said. This changes for the remainder of the meets which focus largely on individual results.
