Boston Valentine Invite

There is no better way to spend the most romantic weekend of the year than at a track meet.  Some do flowers, some chocolates, Allegheny Track and Field does what it does best, run fast and throw far. 
The first day of action started off on the right foot as the gator men qualified provisionally for the NCAA National Championship in the DMR (Zac Ross, Taylor Throckmorton, Ryan Hanson, Tony Dipre), finishing 6th overall with a time of 10:03.32 with a solid finishing leg by Tony Dipre.  The rest of the day was filled with womans races. 
Lauren Butler (last year an all-american in her specialty: the javelin) switched gears to the Shotput and heaved to a whopping 38-10.25 which led her to 9th place overall.  Rallying once more for the Weight Throw shortly after the Shotput, Butler launched the heavy weight 41-01.5 placing her 23rd overall. 
In the shotest race of the day, Beth Muller cruised to a 7.74 in the 55m dash which placed her 48th overall.  Getting the most out of the day, Muller completed the one lap 200 meter dash in 26.66 which garnered her 65th place.
The meet picked up for the ladies One Mile race, the crowds favorite race of the day.  Sam Zink finished with a killer kick, winning her heat, in 5:15.05 and the 4th fastest mile in the NCAC.  Katie Stancik, despite being afflicted with bronchitis, finished with the 5th fastest time in the NCAC in 5:17.83.  They were 46th and 56th overall, respectively.
The first day of action finished with the longest distance raced indoors, the 5000 meters.  25 laps of fun.  Mia Symoniak, outdoor national qualifier in the 10,000, hoped for an indoor national qualifing time but fell just .88 sec away from the provisional mark, despite a strong finish, in 17:40.88.  This time was fast enough for a 13th place overall finish.  Kelly Gallagher also competed in this event.  Her first time ever racing a 5000 meter race on a track, let alone indoors, she strode her way to an NCAC qualifing time of 18:48.77, which placed her 42nd overall.
The first day of track and field was over.  Day two was left to the gentlemen and the ladies DMR.
The first event of the day was the women's DMR (Katie Stancik, Beth Muller, Sam Zink, Mia Symoniak) which placed 19th over in a time of 12:47.69. 
Taylor, the two lap specialist, Throckmorton was the first of the men up for the day with the 400 meter dash which he completed in 50.73 which placed him 78th place overall.
The rest of the men competing were all entered in the mile.  First up was Tony Dipre.  After watching a sub-4 minute mile by a sophomore from the University of Maine, Tony took the line in heat 3.  Negative splitting from the first half of his race, and closing in a 60 second last lap, Tony powered his way to the 4th fastest time in the country for Division III in a 4:10.28 which placed him 15th overall, improving upon his 35th ranked seed time. Ryan Hanson and Benjamin Richard Eyer set the hot pace early in their race, distancing themselves from the rest of the field and finishing in 4:21.5 and 4:22.16, respectively, improving 60 places from the seed time in 73rd and 75th overall.  Zac Ross finished out the day in 96th place overall in 4:24.78.
With another day comes another dollar and the Allegheny Gators, finished with an exhausting weekend of racing, headed back to the hotel to rest up for one more night only to rise early and head back home to Meadville, Pennsylvania early in the morning to get back on the academic and athletic grind.

(Watch Tony Dipre's 4:10.28, 4th fastest mile time in NCAA Div. III here!)
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236483/298297

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack