Men's Distance Medley, Alexandre Score Big
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—On Sunday, the Yale men's track and field team wrapped up the final day of competition at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. The Bulldogs return to Yale with many qualifiers to the IC4A Championships and many strong performances. Yale finished eighth with 21.5 points. Princeton won the meet with 161 points.
The Elis' distance medley relay earned a second-place finish with a time of 9:57.03. Senior John McGowan ran a strong first leg of the race, with a time of 3:02.166 in the 1200-meter run. At the end of this leg, the Bulldogs sat in third place, behind Penn and Princeton. Sophomore Torren Peebles followed in the 400-meter leg of the race, with a time of 49.188 and maintained the Elis' position in third place. Freshman Matt Chisholm followed in the 800-meter run, with a time of 1:56.036. Finally, sophomore James Randon moved up to second place in the mile leg of the race, with a time of 4:09.631. The Bulldogs' time also meets the qualifying standard for the IC4A Championships.
Sophomore Marc-Andre Alexandre put on another spectacular performance on Sunday, winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.05. With the ten points earned by this finish, Alexandre was the largest single contributor to the Bulldogs' score at Heps.
In addition to running the mile leg of the distance medley, Randon also ran the individual mile. Randon placed fifth in a tactical race that started slowly and then drastically sped up throughout the second half of the race. He split 2:09.451 on the first 800 meters, but ran 2:00.172 in the second 800 meters, for a time of 4:09.63.
The Elis also scored with their sixth place finish in the 4x440 yard relay. Senior William Rowe started the race with a time of 50.238. He was followed by sophomores Chandler Crusan and Austin Puleo, who ran times of 50.532 and 50.881, respectively. Alexandre finished the race, with a blistering split of 48.064 in the final leg. The team's overall time was 3:19.72, which qualifies for the IC4A Championships.
In the 800-meter run, junior Alexander McDonald and senior Jacob Sandry competed in the finals, placing seventh and ninth, respectively. McDonald finished with a time of 1:54.55 and Sandry with a time of 1:57.33. In a previous meet, however, McDonald has run the IC4A qualifying standard of 1:54.50, with his performance at the Terrier Invite.
Junior Duncan Tomlin was the Elis' top finisher in the 5,000-meter run. He placed tenth, with a personal-best time of 14:30.08. Freshman Cameron Stanish was the Bulldogs' second finisher, in 15th place, with a time of 14:42.42. Freshman Adam Houston and senior Isa Qasim finished next in 23rd and 24th place, respectively. They were followed by freshman Ryan Brady in 27th place. Houston ran a time of 15:15.07, Qasim ran a time of 15:17.09, and Brady ran a time of 15:33.52. Tomlin, Stanish, Houston, and Brady have all run the qualifying mark for the IC4A Championships.
The Elis' 4x880 yard relay placed eighth, with a time of 7:57.89. Sohpomore Andre Ivankovic, Sandry, sophomore Tim Cox, and McDonald were the competitors on this team.
In the field events, sophomore Luke Persichetti competed on Sunday in the shot put, placing 15th with a mark of 15.22m (49'11.25"). Furthermore, freshman Mike Koller placed 11th in the high jump, with a height of 1.94m (6'04.25").
The next meet for the Bulldogs is the IC4A Championships, which will be held on March 7th and 8th. A preview with a complete list of qualifiers and a schedule will be posted to yalebulldogs.com in the next few days.
Report by Joseph Battles '18, Yale Sports Publicity
