NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- With competitions at Penn and Texas already this weekend, only a few Yale men's track and field athletes competed at the Yale Springtime Invitational Sunday. A mild and very wet New England day did not provide the Bulldogs with the best conditions, but this meet was still valuable as Yale's athletes worked on event execution in a low pressure environment. Yale battled against local competition and came away with a number of positives. 
 
Yale won the 100m dash, as senior Justin Yazdi ran a time of 11.19s with a 1.5m/s wind on his back. Teammate Shaun Gold was also in his heat and finished sixth overall in the competition, with a time less than a tenth of a second of his best. Later in the day, 400m runner Colin Quinn showed he is overcoming his past injury and finding his fitness, as he finished second overall, in a time of 50.43s. Importantly he was able to run unhampered and will be confident that after a full training block leading into next season, he will be back to his best. 
 
In the middle-distance, junior Aaron Cullen ran respectably in the 800m, battling the elements and finishing just off the 2-minute barrier. Henry Saul was Yale's only representative in the 5000m and flew the flag high, winning the competition. Saul took the lead with just two laps to go before then running his fastest lap by more than four full seconds to kick home with a 68.06 last 400m.  
 
In the hammer throw, Jake Sun placed second in a tightly packed field, with a distance of 53.25m. This will be a confidence booster heading into next week as he overcame several strong Columbia contenders, athletes whom he will no doubt be bumping elbows with at Ivy Heps. Alex Sundberg also competed in the hammer competition, finishing in the top 10 with 38.32m. This mark is a personal record for Sundberg and came in his sixth and final throw of the day. He also showed great consistency on the day and was the only competitor to not foul in any of his attempts. Sundberg has shown great improvement over the course of the year and given that this is his first year in the sport, his progress is unlikely to falter anytime soon.
 
In all, this competition rounded off an action-packed spell of Yale competition. The full team will now rest and gear up for a trip to Penn where Yale will test their mettle in the Ivy League Championships next weekend. An in-depth preview for Heps will be posted prior to the competition.
 
Full results for the Yale Springtime Invitational can be accessed here.