Men's captain Hayes and women's relay team pull in winning finishes

Women’s Track

The Amherst women dominated the relays, taking first-, second-, third- and fourth-place finishes. Alyson Venti ’04, Carter Hamill ’05 and tri-captains Laurel Kilgour ’03 and Kate Hamill ’03 won the women’s team’s only first-place finish of the day in the 4 x 800m relay. Amherst’s other women’s relay team in the event, made up of juniors Aparna Nancherla ’04, Helen Dole ’04, and sophomores Alison Rodriguez ’05 and Marcie Griffith ’05, finished in third. Another outstanding performance was the result of the all-freshman 4 x 400m relay. Lyndsey Scott, Ginger Polich, Ariel Haney and Jessamyn Conell-Price ran this season’s best time and stole a second place finish. In a quick 4 x 200m relay race, the women placed fourth. “We have a lot of women who can run well, and that is nice because it is allowing us some flexibility to use different people in different relays,” said Nedeau.

Individually, the women also did very well. Topping the individual performances was Conell-Price, who placed second in her first 500m. Several pairs of women paced themselves together, placing third and fourth, respectively, including the 1000m, in which Kilgour and Polich ran solidly.

The final competition of the day served as a great finale to the day’s exciting performances. Freshman Julia Rucker leapt to a fifth place finish in the triple jump, while also extending her personal record by two feet and qualifying for the New England Championships.

Men’s Track

On the men’s side, tri-captain Pat Hayes ’03 took the men’s team’s best finish of first in the 60m high hurdles. Andrew Schneider ’04 nabbed two second place finishes. In the 1000m, he moved up considerably in the last lap and stole the runner up finish. Later, Schneider was joined by Jamal Aaron ’05, Fraser Kitchell ’06 and John Stanton-Geddes ’04 to take second place in the 4 x 800m relay.

In the 3000m, Amherst’s three runners consistently improved their times. Mike Page ’05 went under the nine-minute mark for the first time finishing in fourth place, as Dave Schreiner ’06 and Matt Katz ’05 both significantly lowered their personal records. Ngai Otieno ’06, and freshman twins James and Julian Seltzer all ran very good times in the 60m dash. These three then joined Hayes in the 4 x 200m and finished fourth. The 4x400m relay team also took fourth.

William Roe ’04 heaved the shot put 38 ft, a new personal record.

Commenting on the cohesion of the team, Nancherla said, “The team is really supportive of each other, so it is really fun to race with everyone there.”

This Saturday, the team looks forward to competing in the Cardinal Invitational at Wesleyan University.