By Catey McCann, Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s track and field team both took first place at Saturday’s home meet against Vermont, Maine and Bowdoin in what has been a very successful weekend for the Wildcats.
The men’s team ended the meet with 182 points – beating Vermont by 41 points. The women’s team pulled away with 193 points, leaving Vermont trailing by 55 points. Despite being a close race between all the teams for much of the competition, strong showings in the men’s and women’s relay races and field events gave the Wildcats what they needed to solidify the wins.
“I think today went very well,” men’s head coach Jim Boulanger said. “Today we talked about winning meets. We need to reinforce winning – I think it’s very important.”
On the women’s side, it was Lauren Perrodin with the biggest win of all. The junior sprinter broke her own school record in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.10. She then went on to claim the top spot in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.04.
On the men’s side, sophomore Michael Shanahan was just shy of the school record by 6 centimeters with a weight throw of 19.4 meters – enough for him to claim the win.
“A lot of personal records today,” said men’s assistant coach Dan Randlett. “We’re moving up in the standings as far as the depth charts for conference.”
Junior Dylan Pelletier had a big day – he claimed first place in the 200-meter with a time of 23.18, a fourth place finish in the 55-meter dash and was a member of the winning 400-meter relay team. D’mahl McFadden followed suit, claiming first place in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.81 and a sixth place finish in the 55-meter dash. Sophomore Ross Hardy claimed a first place finish in the 400-meter with a time of 52.61.
In the distance events it was Steve Souza and Jeff Moretti with big wins. Souza took the top spot in the 800-meter with a time of 1:59.45 while Moretti finished first in the mile with a time of 4:22.73.
In the field events it was the young talent scoring points for the Wildcats. Freshman Keelan McCoole jumped 1.9 meters to claim second place while freshman Alex Tamulonis pole-vaulted 4.63 meters to also claim second place.
There was a huge showing on the women’s side in the 400 and 500-meter sprints. Alyson Messina and Morgan Costa took second and third place in the 400 with times of 1:00.31 and 1:00.78. Gina Conti, Parker Gray, Rachael DePalma and Molly Jenssen swept the board in the 500-meter, taking the top four spots. Virginia Lavallee also claimed first place in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.59.
The women were just as strong in the distance races. Amanda Symanski won the 800-meter with a time of 2:19.27 while Katherine Estep took the top spot in the 3000-meter with a time of 10:40.61. Alex Giese and Sarah Keiran took second and third in the mile.
It was also an exciting day in the women’s high jump. Senior Jessica Salley, freshman Tessa Artruc and freshman Rachel Morrison took the top three spots – all jumping a height of 1.65 meters. Lexie Arbour took first in the triple jump with a jump of 10.62 meters while Abby Kaplan took second in the shot put with a throw of 11.95 meters.
“Today showed a lot of depth on both teams,” said women’s coach Casey Carroll. “We’ll be looking for good team performances again at Rhode Island next week.”
