The men and women of the track team wrapped up their indoor seasons this past weekend, with a small group of athletes competing at the Eastern College Athletic Conference/Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston. Brown only sent a small portion of the team that met the meet's qualifying times. Despite the stiff competition at the championships, Bruno still managed to have a good showing.
"We had a lot of really good performances," said Michelle Eisenreich, director of men's and women's track and field. "Overall, people raced very well."
The men were led by Christian Escareno '11, who placed fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 14 minutes, 14.62 seconds.
"I think I ran well," wrote Escareno in an e-mail to The Herald. "This week, at the IC4As, I randomly laid down a pretty fast time. I feel happy and grateful for the training the new coach, Tim Springfield, has given the team."
"Christian is running very well as evidenced by his performance at IC4As, so he's definitely capable to run with the very best," Eisenreich said. "It has to do with him staying smart with his training and working with the coaches. He's going to be a top runner at regionals and hopefully make nationals."
John Spooney '14 also posted a strong finish, finishing seventh in the 200-meter dash in 21.49 seconds. Dan Lowry '12 earned a sixth-place finish in the preliminaries of the one-mile run, and Kevin Cooper '13 finished the 1,000-meter run in eighth place.
The women were well represented by Hannah Wallace '13 in the pole vault. She cleared 11 feet, 7.75 inches to earn ninth place overall. Gabriela Baiter '11.5 finished sixth in the triple jump, and Sam Adelberg '11 finished first in her preliminary round of the 800-meter run.
With the indoor season behind the track teams, the squads are beginning to train in earnest for the outdoor track season.
"The training philosophy stays the same, but we start a new training cycle because your body adapts," Eisenreich said. "Where they start now this week will be determined by how many times they cycle during the year."
The first meet of the outdoor season is the Husky Spring Open, hosted by Northeastern University March 19. Until then, the teams will focus on helping individuals train in a way that will benefit them the most later on in the season.
"Very different athletes train for very different types of competition," Eisenreich said. "So to nail it down and say there's one specific thing that people need to be working on, you can't do that for track and field."
Since Escareno was injured during last year's outdoor season, he said he considers anything he can accomplish this season a success.
"I feel unexpectedly healthy and fast," Escareno wrote. "Coach Springfield has me running a good amount of mileage and, well, I think I will have a pretty good last season as a collegiate runner."
