Yale Invitational: Busting some rust

The first meet after a long holiday layoff is often referred to as “rust buster” because athletes are shaking off the “rust” from lack of competition and lack of team-oriented practices, the intensity of which is difficult to match when training solo or in small groups. And while Saturday’s meet at Yale showed a little bit of rust in some events, overall it was an above-average – by “rust buster” standards – meet with some top finishes, season- and personal-best performances. Not bad for January 14. Here are some of the highlights, while it is still fresh in my mind.

Men’s highlights

--In the 200-meter dash, senior Joe Cafaro blitzed to a section victory and a second-place overall mark of 23.08 seconds, just 0.01 off his all-time best. And he did that from lane 4 of the tight, four-lane track, not known to produce sizzling sprint times. Great start to 2017!

--In the 400-meter dash, senior captain Tim Johnson ran a perfectly executed race and wound up in first-place overall. Tim wasn’t totally pleased with the finishing time, but we can find no fault in the effort. Nicely done! Also in the event, freshman Justin Muccio powered to a section victory and wound up fifth overall in 53.12 seconds.

--In the 800-meter run, freshman Matthew Hawker ran a personal-best time of 1:59.56 and did so with an aggressive second lap of 28.3 seconds. He hung on strong for a third-place finish. Nice work.

--In the mile run, although he wasn’t pleased with the time and the effort, Joe Miller powered his way to a second-place finish, holding off the majority of the field from start to finish. A solid start to 2017.

--In the 3,000-meter run, the field went out in mid- to late-season form, blitzing through the first kilometer in 2:51. Junior Steven Rizzo hung tough with a strong PR and second-place finish in 8:42.59, including a 32-second last lap. Senior captain Spencer Johnson similarly hung tough for a near-PR and third-place finish in 8:47.01.

--In the distance medley relay, which started the day, the men came tantalizingly close to an IC4A qualifying mark in their first-place finish of 10:20.25. The IC4A standard is 10:19.00. Sophomore Brian Henderson started off with a relatively slow time but perfectly executed 1,200-meter leg. He battled for the lead and eventually handed off in first place, closing like a champ in 30.0 seconds. Freshman Zachary Ropes had two excellent baton passes and ran a solid 51.9-second 400-meter leg. Junior Steven Morrison was the star of the relay, posting a masterful 1:55.8 in the 800-meter leg, extending the team lead to an insurmountable margin. Senior captain Stefan Morton grabbed the baton and took off hard (too hard?) in 29 seconds for 200 meters and 61 seconds for 400 meters. He hung on gamely for a solid, early-season split of 4:21.2, but we just missed. Oh well.

Women’s highlights

--The day started out with a strong distance medley relay, with freshman Denise Grohn closing hard for a 3:47.7 split at 1200 meters. Danisha Craig (60.4) and Shea Bohan (2:19.8) had strong middle legs, and Mara Schiffhauer brought it home for a team second-place finish.

--In the 1,000-meter run, Shea Bohan (3:01.82) and Kerry Gaye (3:07.38) started the season off with personal-best times – Shea doing it on a double! Good stuff.

--Speaking of strong doubles, Denise Grohn came back in the 800-meter run with a second-place finish in 2:25.17, including a strong closing lap.

--In the mile run, freshman Ali Bartolotta (5:12.13), junior Christine Gambell (5:16.62) and senior Bryn Gorberg (5:23.95) all started the season with strong times and equally strong last laps. Closing speed this early in the season is an excellent sign of future success.

--In the 3,000-meter run, Mara Schiffhauer and Elizabeth Wasserman worked together for much of the race, with Mara posting a solid double in fourth place and Elizabeth running a decent season-opener. Mariah Christian and Jordan Casey similarly worked together, running mostly consistent splits with Mariah closing hard (38.69 seconds in the last lap) and edging out Jordan, who celebrated her 20^th birthday with a really strong effort. Happy birthday, kid!