The Middlebury indoor track & field teams set four school records at the Open New England Championships on Friday and Saturday hosted by Division I Boston University. The event was contested on a banked track and featured over 70 schools combined from all three NCAA divisions, as the women finished 20th of 32 teams with five points, while the men were 31st of 36 with six points. The teams return to the track next Friday and Saturday for the ECAC Championships at the Ocean Breeze Track Center in Staten Island, New York.
In women's events, the Panthers lowered two school records. The 4x400 relay quartet of
Jackie Kearney,
Lucy Lang,
Paige Fernandez and
Alexandra Morris finished in sixth place behind five Division I teams with a school-record time of 3:51.28, the nation's fifth-fastest time in Division III.
Abigail Nadler posted an individual school record in the 3,000-meter run for All-New England accolades with a seventh-place finish in 9:58.71, becoming the first Middlebury woman to eclipse the 10-minute mark in the event. Her time on Saturday is nearly 10 seconds below the record she established last weekend during the Division III New England Championships in Virtue Field House.
Another solid effort was recorded by the distance medley relay team of
Nicole Schachman,
Kate McCluskey,
Lauren Bougioukas and Nadler. The team finished in fourth place with a time of 11:49.92, Division III's fourth-fastest time thus far this winter.
On the men's side, the 4x400 relay of Jimmy Martinez, Brandon Cushman, James Mulliken and Alex Nichols earned All-New England honors with a third-place finish, eclipsing the previous school record by .9 seconds with a mark of 3:15.92. That time is currently the sixth-best mark in Division III.
Kevin Serrao erased the school record he set during last weekend's Division III New England Championships, stopping the clock on Saturday with a time of 1:53.14, good for ninth place.
An additional top-10 finish from the Middlebury men came from Sam Cartwright in the mile run (10th, 4:13.45).
