For the second time in three weeks, the Amherst men’s and women’s track teams visited Boston Univ. to compete against Div. I, II and III athletes.

The women competed on Friday, and, just like their last appearance in Boston, the best performances were in the 200-meters by first-year Karen Blake and senior Naomi Bates.

Blake’s time of 25.16 seconds broke the school record that she had previously set Jan. 24th at the Terrier Invitational, and was good for 21st place in a 212-person field. Bates placed 25th with a time of 25.25, which is the second best time in program history. Blake’s time is also the fastest this year in Div. III, while Bates’ is third best. The pair also ran the 400-meters. Blake was once again slightly faster, finishing in 45th place with a time of 58.80 seconds, while Bates was 57th in 59.44 seconds.

In other track events, Taylor Summers ’16 grabbed 45th place in the 60-meters with a time of 8.13 and sophomore Keelin Moehl ran a 2:19.78 to finish 60th in the 800. First-year Catherine Lowdon and senior Amy Dao paced the Jeffs in the 1000-meters and the one mile respectively, with Lowdon running a 3:10.56 and Dao a 5:08.81. Kiana Herold ’17 turned in the most impressive performance in the field events, tying for fifth in the high jump with an effort of 1.65 meters.

On the men’s side, senior Matt Melton’s clocked a stand-out performance in the 500-meters. Melton ran a 1:03.26 to finish second in the 80-man field. He also joined Nick Codola ’15, Brent Harrison ’16 and Judd Liebman ’16 on the 4x400-meter relay team which placed 17th with a time of 3:21.71.

“We had a great day with a bunch of personal beat times, including a new school record in the 3000 by Greg Turissini ’15 at 8:19.50,” commented head coach Erik Nedeau. Turissini finished 24th out of 114 runners in the event.

Brent Harrison led the Jeffs in the 800-meters, completing the event in 1:54.99, which was good for 57th. Mark Cort ’15 (23.14) and Josh Young ’17 (23.28) were the top finishers for the Jeffs in the 200-meters. Other track notables were sophomores Dan Crowley (4:17.67) and Jeff Seelaus (4:19.54), who paced Amherst in the mile, as well as junior Romey Sklar, who ran a 2:30.53 in the 1000-meters to place 24th.

In the field events, Khalil Flemming ’16 and Stephen Hetterich ’15 both finished in the top 20 of the triple jump, leaping 13.48 and 12.83 meters respectively. Mark Cort led the Jeffs in the long jump, tying for 30th with a mark of 6.37 meters.
Both teams travel to Tufts this Saturday for the Cupid Challenge.