Middlebury's Kevin Serrao broke the men's 800-meter dash record and Jimmy Martinez lowered the school mark in the 400-meter dash on Saturday as the Panthers competed in two meets this weekend. The men's squad took part Saturday in the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University's Track & Tennis Center as well as the Gordon Kelly Invitational hosted by M.I.T., while the women competed at M.I.T. Both meets were unscored and featured athletes from all three NCAA divisions and international running clubs. The Panthers return to the track next weekend when the women host the Division III New England Championships in Virtue Field House, while the men will travel to M.I.T. for the event.
In the Hemery Invitational where select Panther men competed, Serrao broke the school record in the 800-meter run, crossing the line in 1:52.25. His time eclipsed the old record of 1:53.51 set by Nick Digani back in 2005.
Martinez stopped the clock in 48.80 during the 400-meter dash, breaking Peter Hetzler's record time of 49.22 set in 2012. His time was the 29th-fastest out of 195 participants, while Alex Nichols was a few spots behind in 37th (49.02).
Top-five men's performances at M.I.T. came from Peter Elkind, who won the 800-meter run in 2:02.40. Runner-up efforts were posted by Miles Meijer during the mile run (4:33.38) and Harrison Knowlton in the 3,000-meter race (9:02.40).
Adam Markun tallied a pair of top-five efforts in the 200-meter dash (23.10, 3rd) and 60-meter dash (7.19, 5th), while Matthew Sjogren finished fourth in the mile run (4:35.23). Jackson Bockwas fourth in the 200-meter dash (23.64), just ahead of teammate Michael Pallozzi in fifth (24.00).
During the women's competition at M.I.T., Chelsea Montello raced to the line fifth in the 60-meter dash (8.14), while Madison Goodstein was also fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.65). Katherine Merrick posted a seventh-place finish during the mile run with a time of 5:35.63.
Off the track, Kreager Taber leapt to a tie for ninth place in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 10'6".
