This weekend Yale athletes competed at both the Yale-hosted Giegengack Invitational, and the BU-hosted David Hemery Valentine Invitational. At both meets, personal records tumbled, and huge progress was made in the march towards Ivy League success at the end-of-month conference championships. It was a great weekend for the Yale program, but there were definitely a few select individuals who stole the show with some magical performances.
 
David Hemery Valentine Invitational 
 
BOSTON -- Sophomore Jacob Kao electrified the Yale supporters with a hugely impressive 200m clocking. Despite nursing a knee injury for much of the last two weeks, Kao was as sharp as anyone in the Ivy League, clocking 21.45, and moving himself from number 10 to number two on the Yale all-time rankings. At the competition itself, Kao had been seeded 44th out of 335 athletes, but ended up placing 10^th in the entire meet. Kao has already oozed quality this indoor season, with a collegiate 60m PR and commanding 4x400m splits, but Saturday was undoubtedly his stand out performance in a Yale vest. 
 
Also, in the 200m, Jeamy Williams achieved his third collegiate PR in his third consecutive weekend. Williams has historically been a 400m specialist for Yale, and with this kind of progress in the shorter event, the senior looks set to depart Yale with a season to remember.
 
The distance athletes were not to be outshone in Boston. Winslow Atkeson (4.06.36), Liam Garrett (4.07.11) and Calvin Katz (4.09.25) all impressed in the mile race. In the 3000m, Leo Brewer and Varun Oberai both broke into the top 15 of all Yale indoor performances, finishing in 8.09.55 and 8.09.95 respectively.
 
Cade Brown, in a race that finished at 11:30 p.m., put the cherry atop of a fabulous Yale day. Brown competed in the 5000m and finished in a time of 14.08.87. In doing so, he ran the second-fastest time in Yale history. This was a leader's performance from this year's cross country captain. With his experience in big meets, Brown will hope to challenge for more Ivy Heps points and continue his dominant Yale career.
 
Giegengack Invitational
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- In New Haven, Yale's performances were just as spectacular. 
 
Drake Prince showed why he will go down as one of Yale's greats in the 800m. After being paced by friend and teammate Thomas Cirrito for 500 blistering meters, Prince was left as the only runner on the track, unleashing a ruthless kick to finish in 1.49.29 – only five-hundredths of a second off the school record (or in other words 1/5^th of the time it takes to blink). This was a stellar collegiate performance, and Prince was deservedly greeted by a flurry of high fives and hugs from his teammates as he stepped off the track.
 
First-year star Brian Di Bassinga set a new PR in the triple jump of 15.22m and edged a step closer to the school record. Di Bassinga remains as the first-year record holder, and Yale's third all-time in the event, but Saturday's jump was less than an inch from moving into that number two position. 
 
In the 60m, there were two particularly strong performances. First year Mason Evans ran a new PR of 6.94, breaking into Yale's all-time top 15. Evans was highlighted as one to watch in this meet's preview, and he did not disappoint. Although a hamstring cramp prevented him from running the 200m, he can be hugely proud of himself after breaking the seven-second barrier and beating out Ivy League competition when it mattered most. 
 
Cristian Pereira also impressed in the 60m final. Despite being primarily a long jumper, Pereira highlighted his huge speed gains since coming to Yale. He took more than a tenth of a second off his PR this weekend, in a time of 7.15. 
 
This was a weekend jam-packed full of impressive performances and the Bulldogs now look a much more threatening team headed into the Ivy League championships in two weeks. The sky remains the limit for this young team.