HANOVER, N.H. -- The Yale men's track and field team opened the 2023 campaign on Saturday, as the team posted a number of impressive performances at the annual Yale-Dartmouth-Columbia tri-meet at Leverone Field House.
The day kicked off in the field events, with senior Odera Nweke and sophomore Cristian Pereira competing in the long jump. Nweke finished a close second thanks to a 6.87m leap, while Pereira was just 1cm away from his lifetime best with his 6.36 jump. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs showed remarkable depth in the weight throw with five athletes competing. Junior Matt Appel placed second thanks to a 17.74m throw, while first year Jake Sun and junior Chris Ward threw PRs of 16.47m and 15.58m for sixth and ninth place respectively. Appel went one better in the shot put, taking the win thanks to a 16.95m throw. First year Nolan Recker, who also placed seventh in the weight throw, achieved a 13.83m PR to place eighth, close behind Ward's 15.32m throw for sixth. In the triple jump, fellow first year Brian Di Bassinga scored the second of Yale's four victories on the day as he put in a dominant performance with jumps of 14.74m, 14.83m and 14.85m, all of which were PRs. Bassinga is unbeaten after two competitions this season, and is certainly one to watch heading into the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet next weekend.
On the track, there were more stellar performances to come for the Bulldogs. Nweke was back in action over the 60m, qualifying for the final along with first year Mason Evans and sophomore duo Kit Colson and James Grindle. Evans led them home in the final, backing up his 7.05 PR from the heats with a 7.08 second clocking for fourth place. Grindle doubled back in the 200m later on, in which he and junior Aaron Miller finished third and fourth with times of 22.35 and 22.58 respectively, while first year Andrew Farr ran a 22.73 PR for seventh place. Over the 400m, sophomore Jacob Kao also PR'd, running 50.63 to finish third.
The Bulldogs found considerable success in the middle distance events, in spite of having to navigate an unfamiliar flat 200m track. The lack of banked bends means an imperceptible, but nonethless significant, increase in the difficulty of powering around the track at the same pace as the athletes are accustomed to at Coxe Cage. Typical estimates cite a difference of approximately +0.4 seconds per lap as opposed to banked tracks. Sophomore Austin Montini kicked to victory in the 800m with a 1:55.96 clocking, with senior Richard Sturtevant 's 1:58.05 positioning him close behind in fourth. Junior Liam Garrett and first year Braden King finished second and third in the 1000m with times of 2:28.04 and 2:29.25 respectively, both of them PRs in their first time competing in the event.
In the mile, junior Drake Prince jostled with the leaders throughout the race on his way to fourth place in a PR of 4:11.38. Behind him, Yale went 8th-9th-10th with sophomore Varun Oberai, first year Tanish Chettiar and junior Stephen Moody. The Bulldogs' final victory of the day came in exciting fashion in the 3000m, as sophomore Leo Brewer took the lead with 400m to go and romped his way to a scintillating first-place finish in his first track race for Yale, holding on to a nailbaiting 0.02 second victory after being challenged on the last lap. Just behind his 8:23.09 time was fellow sophomore Calvin Katz in third with an 8:24.90 clocking.
The Bulldogs rounded out the day with third-place finishes in both the 4x400m and 4x800m relays, leaving Yale a close third place in the overall team standings with 41 points to Columbia's 43 and Dartmouth's 86. Expect the Bulldogs to build upon that result next weekend, as they head to Boston for the Harvard-Yale-Princeton tri-meet.
Live results from Saturday's meet can be found here.
