The Dartmouth track and field teams faced top-tier East Coast competition at qualifying championships at Princeton University over the weekend. Eight men competed for the Big Green in the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championships, while 12 members of the women's team competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships.
The women's team finished 28th overall out of 53 teams at the ECAC Championships, while the men's team finished 18th overall out of 49 teams at the IC4A Championships.
Strong performances by Alex Tanner '11 and Arianna Vailas '14 headlined the women's team's results, and Phil Royer '13, Tom Robbins '11 and Jonathan Gault '13 paced the men's team.
Gault is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
The distance races took place on Friday, the first day of competition. Royer took fifth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 8:49.75, while Gault finished fifth in the 10,000-meter run.
Most of Saturday's events were preliminary heats for relays and qualifiers for short and mid-distance races. Tanner earned a spot in the 400-meter hurdles final by winning her heat by a comfortable margin, while Vailas qualified for the 1,500-meter finals with a strong run. Robbins qualified for the men's 1,500-meter finals.
Due to forecasts for storms in the area on Sunday, the original schedule of events was abandoned in favor of a rolling schedule, with events starting immediately after each other. The weather held up, but the schedule change stood.
"That threw a monkey wrench in the warmup schedules because you don't know when to warm up," women's team head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze said.
Tanner, who holds the school record in the 400-meter hurdles, finished second in the event on Sunday, and Vailas placed seventh in the 1,500-meter run. Katelyn Walker '14 also earned a top-10 finish, taking ninth in the 3,000-meter run.
"We had a few young ladies who were trying to get some final races in to see where they would end up for [NCAA Regionals]," Ford-Centoze said. "That was the goal for everyone who wasn't sure of where they are in terms of qualifying for Regionals. We have a couple of girls who are currently on the bubble."
Ford-Centoze said she was happy with the way that the team recovered from an emotional weekend at the Heptagonal Championships last weekend to deal with a short turnaround this week.
"It's the way track and field is," She said. "You hope that people peak at the right time and keep it going for a couple more weeks."
Robbins took the best finish for the men's team at the IC4A Championships, placing third in the 1,500-meter event on Sunday.
Men's team head coach Barry Harwick said he was pleased with Dartmouth's strong individual performances given the event's tough competition.
"I knew they were capable of doing it," Harwick said. "It's nice that it came together at a championship meet. The IC4A is a huge organization with schools from Maine to North Carolina you have to be a really good athlete to qualify."
The schedule changes did not disturb the field events on Sunday. David Irving '11 finished sixth in the men's hammer throw and ninth in the discus throw. Chris Roe '11 earned 10th place in the men's javelin throw.
The IC4A and ECAC Championships were the last meets to count towards qualification for Regionals, and many athletes hoped to improve their seeding before the competition.
Harwick said he believes Royer and Robbins have a good chance of qualifying for Regionals, while Ford-Centoze said runners on the cusp of having qualifying times such as co-captain Chrissy Supino '12 have improved their chances of making it further in the phases of competition. Both coaches said they believe the Big Green could qualify approximately a dozen athletes in total, although the official announcement will not come until Thursday.
The Big Green rested several of its runners who had already earned qualifying times.
