The Panther track and field teams competed at the Division III New England Championships at the Coast Guard Academy over the weekend. The Middlebury women placed fourth among the 28 teams scoring, while the men earned a 19th place finish. Senior Jennifer Currie (Milton, Vt.) was the lone individual N.E. Champion, capturing the hammer with a toss of 158'5". The women's 4x800 relay team comprised of senior Kate Hirschboeck (Coto De Caza, Calif.) and rookies Kaitlynn Saldanha (Scarborough, Maine), Sophie Spring (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and Christina Kunycky (Marlborough, Mass.) won the N.E. title with a time of 9:20.30.
Finishing fourth in the 3000 and qualifying for the NCAA's with a time of 11:10.34 was senior Ceara Danaher (Simsbury, Conn.). Junior Kelley Coughlan (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) earned a fourth place finish in the triple jump (35'5.75"), Hirschboeck was fifth in the 1500 (4:41.52), while junior Jen Katz (Winchester, Mass.) came in fifth in the 200 (26.40). Earning a sixth place finish in the 400 was first-year racer Grace Close (Fox Point, Wis.), with a time of 59.87, while Saldanha came in seventh in the 800 (2:18.61). Finishing in sixth and seventh place respectively in the pole vault were senior Sarah Wilson (Winchester, Mass.) and rookie Nicole Dvorak (Essex, Vt.), both clearing 10'2". Other top finishers were first-year athlete Hannah Meier (Charlotte, Vt.) with an eighth place finish in the 5000 (18:07.48) and sophomore Laura Dalton (Simsbury, Conn.), who finished eighth in the 400 hurdles (1:06.44).
A pair of Middlebury relay teams earned third place finishes on Saturday. Katz, senior Elizabeth Huntley (Coralville, Iowa) and sophomores Anjuli Demers (Dracut, Mass.) and Laura Dalton (Simsbury, Conn.) accomplished the feat in the 4x100, finishing with a time of 49.82. Dalton, Close, Demers and first-year runner Katie Magill (Boxford, Mass.) made up the 4x400 team, that finished with a time of 4:01.29.
Senior Jimmy Butcher (Garden City, N.Y.) was the top finisher for the men, breaking his own school record and earning a second place finish in the 5000 with a time of 14:53.03. Sophomore Micah Wood (Tacoma, Wash.) finished fourth in the 400 (50.21) and 10th in the 200 (22.86), while rookie Adam Dede (West Chester, Ohio) came in ninth in the pole vault (13'3.5"). First-year thrower Nicholas Plugis (Bedford, Mass.) earned an 11th place finish in the javelin (163'7"), while senior Ian O'Reilly (Meriden, N.H.) came in 13th in the 800 (1:56.33).
The men's 4x400 relay team comprised of O'Reilly, Wood, junior Ben Fowler (Bethesda, Md.) and sophomore Glen Frieden (Manchester, N.H.) earned a sixth place finish with a time of 3:26.25.
