Last weekend, both the Colgate men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to participate in the Giegengack Invite at Yale University. Neither squad participated in enough events to record a team score, but the Raiders had several standout individual and medley performances.

In terms of overall placement, the men’s squad did not fare as well as they recently have. However, the second day of the Giegengack In­vite brought with it a slew of solid individual performances – especially in the sprinting events. In the 60-meter hurdles, junior sprinter Alexander Coco advanced to the final heat, where he placed 12th overall, edging out the 13th-place finisher by just .001 seconds. In the 400-meter dash, Colgate junior Graham Tooker placed 18th overall with a final time of 50.83. Although Tooker’s name fell in the middle of the final standings, he was less than three seconds behind the first-place finisher of the event. Senior Dan Schwaibold found him­self in a similar situation when, in the 500-meter dash, he took the 18th place overall with a time just over 3 seconds behind the first-place finisher in the competition.

The Raiders really started to compete as the day went on and the longer distance events began. In the 300-meter run, the team placed two runners in the top-10 of the field. Sopho­more Chris Johnson placed fifth overall in the event with a time of 8:27.16 and was followed closely by senior Dan Gleason who took eighth place. Gleason crossed the finish line in a swift 8:33.68. In the 5000-meter run, senior captain Ed Sheridan finished in the middle of the pack, but posted a very respectable time of 15:12.55.

As has been the case thus far in this cam­paign, the Raiders also experienced a decent amount of success in the medley events. In the 4×400 meter relay, Colgate’s ‘A’ squad of Tooker, senior Andrew Smith, junior Timothy Metivier and senior Jonathan Knowlton placed fifth overall with a final time of 3:19.32. The time was strong enough for Colgate to fin­ish first in its heat, but was still a few seconds too slow to match up with the UPenn and St. Josephs squads from the first heat.

As was the case with the men’s team, the women’s squad did not compete in enough events to warrant a team score, but it did have a number of standout performances. The Raid­ers were quite successful in sprinting events. In the fourth heat of the finals for the 200-meter dash, senior Michelle Miller placed first with a time of 26.22. The time was good enough for 11th place overall in the event, and was just .03 seconds away from placing in the top 10 of the standings. Miller was able to get a bit of revenge in the 400-meter dash, as she once again placed first in her heat. This time, however, Miller’s time of 59.16 was good enough for eighth overall in the event.

Junior Alexandra Atkinson also won her heat, and her time of 59.57 was good enough for 11th place overall. As the day went on and long-distance events began to spring up, the Raiders’ long-distance runners continued to build on their success. In the 100-meter run, first-year Cailey Fiesel placed sixth in her heat and 17th overall with a time of 3:03.83. In the 3000-meter run, Colgate sophomore Caroline Prins continued her emergence as a top long-distance runner by placing sixth overall with a final time of 10:15.43. Colgate was most suc­cessful in the 5000-meter run, where it placed four runners in the top-10, including two in the top-seven. Senior Julie Tarallo placed third overall in the event with a time of 17:57.26 and was followed in seventh place by junior Kelly Cattano, who crossed the finish line in a solid 18:17.5.

The women’s squad also continued their suc­cess in medley events, taking eighth place overall in the 4×400-meter relay. Colgate’s ‘A’ squad of Atkinson, sophomore Ellen Callahan, first-year Jamie King-Prunty and Miller completed the event with an excellent final time of 4:00.62.

The men’s and women’s teams will return back to action this weekend. The men will travel to Boston, Massachusetts to take part in a meet at Boston University, while the women’s team also heads to a meet in Beantown to compete at the New Balance Invite.