On Friday and Saturday, the Mammoths travelled to Conn. College to compete at the Silfen Invitational. On Friday, only elite sections of mid-distance and distance events competed, while on Saturday all events took place. Both days featured nice weather, a stark contrast to the cold weather of the prior week’s Amherst Spring Fling.
On a sunny, but cold and windy day, the Mammoths took to their home track at Lehrman Stadium to place third out of seven teams at the fourth annual Amherst Spring Fling meet. Due to the forecasted cold weather, athletes in events 200 meters and below did not compete, as the cold weather would have put them at an increased risk of injury early in the spring track season.
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The Mammoths kicked off the outdoor track and field season at the Tufts Snowflake Classic, in preparation for the NESCAC Championships to be held during the last weekend of April. Several members of the 4x400 and distance medley relays that qualified for indoor nationals did not compete, choosing to prepare for a long outdoor season.
On Saturday, the Mammoths returned to Tufts for the third time this indoor season to compete at the Tufts National Qualifying Meet, a last-chance meet to qualify for the Division III Indoor Track and Field National Championships. Amherst had an incredible day, as both the distance medley and 4x400-meter relays earned places on the starting line in Birmingham, Alabama this upcoming weekend at nationals.
All season, the Mammoths had been scheduled to compete at the Middlebury Winterfell Meet, a competitive last chance meet. However, earlier last week the Winterfell was cancelled due to a lack of athletes entered to compete in it.
This past weekend, the Mammoths travelled north to Middlebury to compete at the Division III New England Championships and left with a 13th place finish among the best teams in New England.
All individual events at the meet had a qualifying standard, while relay events were open to any team that choses to enter. Many of the Mammoths who qualified for the meet competed, while others chose to train in preparation for more competitive meets over the next few weekends.
The Amherst men’s track and field team split up this weekend, with one group travelling to compete at the Boston University Valentine Invitational and the other at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gordon Kelley Invitational.
The track at BU is banked and is often regarded as the fastest indoor track in the United States, and perhaps the world. With competitors from all three NCAA divisions in addition to amateur and professional athletes, the meet gave the Mammoths a great opportunity to post fast times going into the DIII New England Championships next weekend.
