Track Set to Maintain Momentum

Author: David Lindholm

The Middlebury Indoor Track and Field team is looking forward to another season of Bubble training, road trips, and some standout individual performances. While the athletes have already started training, the team's first competition does not come until January 11, when the team heads to Hanover for the Dartmouth Relays.

Both the men and women are coming off successful indoor seasons, as last year's team set many Middlebury records. The men are led by senior captains Tony Garofano, Craig Pittman and Mike De Leo, and the women's captains are Maryanne Porter, Jess Kosciewicz and Margery Glover.

Last winter, the women set four school records, with Porter setting the mark in the 600m run, and three relay teams (the 4x200m, 4x400m and the distance medley relay) also set top times. The men set a stunning total of seven records last year, with Kevin Bright '06 earning the records in the 400m, the 600m and the long jump. Bright was also a member of the 4x200 relay team that set a Middlebury mark. The team will definitely look to use newcomers and an established old guard to challenge the marks set last year and further in the past, as well as test the competition around the country.

The team has five meets around New England, New York and Canada in January and February before beginning its Championships: on February 21, the Division III New England Championships will be held, with the men heading to Bowdoin and the women traveling to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boston will host another meet as the Open New England Championships take place a week later at Boston University. On March 5-6, Bowdoin is the site of another meet, the E.C.A.C. Championships. The last meet of the year is the NCAA Championships at the University of Wisconsin.

With trackers having to qualify for each of the Championships, the winter season gives the team a chance to showcase some of its top performers, as well as get the team ready for the grueling spring season.

During March vacation the track and field team will head off campus for some training in a more temperate climate, and the winter provides a solid base on which to build a strong spring. In its 14th season, indoor track continues to grow stronger, and the team, with Coach Martin Beatty at the helm, hopes for another successful season in 2004.