At last weekend's Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted by Columbia, the women's and men's track squads held their ground but still fell short against a competitive field. The women finished fourth with 50 points, and the men finished seventh with 28.
Princeton women and men carried the day with 128 points and 215 points, respectively.
"I think that both teams put forth a very strong effort," said Michelle Eisenreich, director of men's and women's track and field. "They put forth the best effort they could."
Brynn Smith '11 led the women's team, finishing first in the shot put and weight throw. She hurled the shot 51 feet, 9.75 inches, earning the indoor Ivy track record. Later, she earned her second title as she threw the weight 60-1.
"I went in expecting the best out of myself," she said. "I wasn't honestly thinking about winning at all. I was just focused on having a great last indoor meet."
"Brynn has really been a rock for our team and holds us all together," said sprinter Susan Scavone '12. "She is someone we all look up to."
Scavone had a successful showing herself — she raced the 60-meter hurdles in 8.69 seconds to claim third place.
"The field was a lot faster this year — my time for third this year would have won last year," she said. "I gave all I had and ended up running pretty well."
Rachel Biblo '11 and Samantha Adelberg '11 also turned in strong performances. Biblo came in second in the triple jump, while Adelberg placed fourth in the 800-meter run.
"I was extremely happy with how the team on the whole competed this weekend," said women's distance coach Jill Miller. "We want to be the team giving everything in every race — the team that's winning all the little battles."
On the men's side, the 4x400 relay was the success story of the meet. The team, composed of three first-years and a sophomore, earned second place and set a new school record at 3 minutes, 14.26 seconds. In addition, Evan Weinstock '14 earned third place in the heptathlon, and Nathan Elder '13 took fifth place in the 500 with a time of 1:30.76.
"The men did well, but I think this was really difficult because these two teams — Cornell and Princeton — have such depth," Smith said. "And it's hard to place in an event when they literally have five or six people in every event."
In the 800, Matt Bevil '14 ran a promising preliminary time, only to trip on a track barrier in the last 100 meters of the final section. If he had finished the race in the position he held before falling, the men would have ended the meet tied for fifth place with Penn.
"He didn't try to fall — he just fell," Eisenreich said. "There's just no point.You can't say ‘if so and so.'"
With the Heptagonal Championships over, the indoor season is finished for most of the squads' members. Bruno will send a few women to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships and a few men to International Association of Amateur Athletes of America in Boston March 5 and 6.
"We won't bring many people to (IC4A's) — we're going to focus on outdoor," Eisenreich said.
The Bears will officially open the outdoor track and field season March 19 at the Husky Spring Open hosted by Northeastern University.
"We had a strong showing this weekend, and we'll be infinitely stronger in outdoor," Miller said.
