Men's Indoor Track & Field Takes Title at Dartmouth Relays

Friday, January 6

Hanover, N.H.

TBA

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Relays

Men's Indoor Track & Field Takes Title at Dartmouth Relays

1/8/2012 6:04:00 PM | Men's Track & Field

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - It took until then final few heats of the day before head coach Barry Harwick stopped pacing the infield of Leverone Field House and was able to relish a season-opening victory.

The Dartmouth men's indoor track team edged out UMass Lowell for the team title at the 43rd annual Dartmouth Relays Sunday afternoon at the team's indoor facility. The home team claimed the top spot with 67 points, while the River Hawks took second with 60.

The Big Green have now won four of the last five Dartmouth Relays after Northeastern took the 2011 crown.

"This was the first time (at the college level) for a lot of the kids and I think they did a phenomenal job," Harwick said of his team's season-opening performance.

First-place finishes from sophomore Dom Filiano (Lebanon, N.H.) in the shot put, freshman Jeremy Birck (Libertyville, Ill.) in the high jump and senior Matt Miner (Ashland, Ore.) in the mile helped the Big Green to nearly half of the team's point total.

Filiano bested the field with a throw of 55-6.50/16.93m to claim first and the 10 points for his team. Birk cleared 6-8.25/2.04m to take the top spot in the finals of the high jump, while Miner's 4:11.25 earned him the 10 points in the mile.

Filiano was also third overall in the weight throw, but was the top college performer as he posted a mark of 50-3.25/15.32m.

The pole vault saw an interesting dual between sophomore Josh Cyphers (Grantham, N.H.) and his younger brother and high school senior, Michael, competing unattached. Both finished with identical heights of 15-0.00/4.57m, but with Josh helping earn the extra two points for the Big Green in the final standings. Junior Brett Gilson (Richboro, Pa.) also factored into the scoring, finishing sixth and earning two points with a mark of 14-6.00/4.42m in the event.

Freshman Brett Buskey (Blackstone, Mass.) was fourth in the finals of the 60 meters, crossing in 7.07.

UMass Lowell earned a majority of its points in the 400 meters, taking the top four spots in the finals for 28 of its 60 total points on this day. Senior Evan Bryant (Baltimore, Md.) was the top Dartmouth runner in that race, but his seventh-place finish (51.08) had him one spot of the scoring.

After qualifying third in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles in 8.64 and winning his heat, junior Jacob Evanter (Marblehead, Mass.) placed third in the finals of the event in 8.43 to earn six points.

The final event of the day on the men's side was the 4x400-meter relay. Leading by nine points headed into the event, all Dartmouth needed to do was place in the scoring and it would all-but sew up first place. UMass Lowell took care of business by winning the event in 3:24.40, but the Big Green sealed the victory by finishing second in 3:25.81 to give themselves a seven-point cushion.

It will be a week before the Big Green run again, but they won't have to travel for their second meet of the season as Leverone Field House will Vermont, Maine and Rensselaer on Saturday, Jan. 14 at noon.