Women

The women’s indoor track team won two events en route to their second-place finish at the ECAC Championships. MIT (56.33) claimed the top spot among the 57 teams that scored points. The Jeffs ended the day with 46 points.

Junior Lauren Almeida earned one of the Jeffs’ two victories, finishing first in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:59.19, 0.5 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Amy Dao ’14 scored points in fifth place with a personal best time of 3:03.43.

The 4x800 relay team of Ellen Richmond ’12, Lambert, Melissa Sullivan ’12 and Dao bested the field with a winning time of 9:23.69, posting a new Div. III facility record for The Armory Tack and Field Center. Lambert gave the Jeffs a 40-meter lead during the second leg of the relay, and Sullivan and Dao maintained the gap to win by four seconds.

Lambert placed second in the mile with a personal record of 4:53.76, the second-fastest time in school history. Her time qualified her automatically for NCAAs.

Lambert also ran the final leg of the distance medley relay, joined by Almeida, Bates and Sullivan. Their time of 11:52.12 was also the school’s second-best.

Bates placed fifth in both the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, with times of 7.83 and 25.68. She ran a personal-best in the 200, beating the school record she set earlier this season.

First-years Lizzy Briskin and Abraelle Shirley had strong individual performances. Briskin placed 17th in the mile with a 5:12.03, dropping 28 seconds from the beginning of the season. Shirley’s time of 26.34 in the 200 was a personal best.

Men

The Jeffs had their highest ever program finish at the ECAC Championships, winning three events and scoring points in three more. The third-place Jeffs (34) trailed only Bates (69) and Tufts (48) and were one of 62 teams that scored points.

Ben Scheetz ’12 won the 1,000-meter run, crossing the tape at 2:25.50. He broke a 25-year-old school record by almost a full second, as well as an 11-year meet record. Scheetz was two seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Amherst’s next win came from sophomore Matt Melton, who posted a personal-best in the 500-meter dash. His time of 1:04.19 was just 0.6 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Earning the top spot in the mile, junior Pat Grimes ran a 4:12.25, fast enough for an NCAA provisional cut and 0.2 seconds shy of the meet record.

Andrew Erskine ’13 also made a provisional NCAA cut, finishing eighth in the 5,000. He snagged the final scoring spot with a time of 14:49.41. Grimes, Melton, Scheetz and Alex Durkee ’15 scored points with an eighth-place finish in the distance medley relay with a 10:04.90.

Durkee, Romey Sklar ’15, Eli Howe ’13 and Lucas Lebovitz ’15 teamed up for the 4x800 and placed seventh. Lebovitz anchored the team with a career-best time of 1:55.

The indoor track NCAA Championships will take place in Grinnell, Iowa next weekend.