COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY The men's track team will have to make the transition from the team-oriented indoor season to individualized outdoor events.

Runners improve inside, set sights on sunlight

After tying for second-to-last place in the 1999 Heptagonals, the Yale men's indoor track team knew that something had to change. With an arsenal of talented runners, and a 4x400-meter relay unrivaled by teams up and down the East Coast, talent certainly wasn't the problem. Perhaps it was just a matter of faith. "I think our captain, Brian Yates, PC '00, had a lot to do with our improvement," Ryan Barrows, MC '01, said. "He actually got us to believe that if we worked hard we could do well." And that's exactly what they did in this indoor season.

On Sat., Feb. 26, and Sun., Feb. 27, the Elis sprinted, hurdled, and relayed their way to a fifth place finish overall and a fourth place Ivy finish in the 2000 Heptagonals. Their score of 68 points was only one point shy of fourth place Dartmouth, and was Yale's highest finish at the tournament since 1991. The Bulldogs' success was particularly sweet for Coach Steve Bartold, who is retiring from Yale track after a 20-year run as head coach. "We finished in the top half of the Ivy League," Zach Boisi, TD '01, said. "It was really nice for our coach to go out in the top of the Ivies."

While on the surface Yates' future graduation and Bartold's retirement seem to create a void in the team's future leadership, last weekend the undergraduate classes proved they are ready to take charge. Juniors and sophomores scored a majority of the team's points at the Heptagonals, which bodes well for the remainder of the spring season as well as the upcoming year. The 4x400 meter relay team, composed of Zach Boisi, TD '01, Jason Rife, SM '01, Thomas Hocker, PC '02, and Donald Carson, CC '02, set the standard of achievement for the weekend. Yale took first place in the relay, with a time of 3:14:66 that tied the meet record set in 1988 and was just 16 hundredths of a second shy of the Yale record.

M. Track

Recent Results: Fifth place at Heptagonals. Coming Up: IC4A Championship at Harvard, Sat., Mar. 4 to Sun. Mar. 5; NCAA Championship at Fayetteville, Ark., Fri., Mar. 10 to Sat., Mar. 11.

"All season we had been holding our own against schools such as Duke, Tulane, Seton Hall, and Ohio State—all of which are perennial powerhouses in the 4x400," Hocker said. "Going into the Heps, we were sure we could improve on last year's fourth place finish." Known not only for their speed, but also for their personality, the 4x400 team is known throughout the Ivy League as the Y.O.D.T. a secret nickname which has certainly added to the relay team's winning mystique. "Nobody in the league knows what it stands for, but they definitely know who we are," Boisi said.

Although they certainly stood out, the relay runners were not the only ones to meet with measurable success at the Heptagonals. Yates placed fourth in the shotput and threw for a personal best, while Barrows took first in the 800-meter race with a time of 1:53:66. The goal now is to carry these victories over into the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships this weekend and finish the season off on a high note. Unlike the Heptagonals, the IC4As are focused more on individual runners and less on team performance. While the team normally travels with approximately 40 runners, this weekend the Elis will compete with a team less than half that size. Additionally, as the last meet of the season, the IC4As are the final opportunity for Eli athletes to place into nationals or establish record times. "The 4x400 [team] is going to try to break the school record and I'm going to try to qualify for Nationals in the open 800 this weekend," Barrows said. "But I need to drop a second and a half off my time."

Like the IC4As, the upcoming outdoor season also has a slightly more individualized character than the indoor season. While during the indoor season runners work on different variations of their best events, the outdoor season provides runners with the chance to showcase their talent. "Indoor track tends to be more varied while outdoor track is more individualized," Horace Grant, TD '02, said. "It's more of an opportunity to do what you're best at." The Elis travel to Clemson over spring break, where they will kick off their outdoor season at the Clemson Invitational on Sat., Mar. 18. With a whole new Heptagonal meet waiting for them in Annapolis, Mary., on Mon., May 13, and Tues., May 14, the Elis have one more chance to prove that to gain success, sometimes you just gotta have faith.

Back to Sports...