As captain Kelsey Borner '09 won the first event of the day, the weight throw, at the women's indoor track meet against Brandeis University last` Saturday, the Polar Bears knew they were in for a day of outstanding performances.
The women weren't disappointed, as Borner's win preceded a series of victories by Bowdoin, who defeated Brandeis 76-64.
The team's seniors posted many of the first place finishes on Saturday in cluding Borner, Annie Monjar '09 placed first in the 3K and Jessica Sokolow '09 won the 800-meter run.
Captain Ali Chase '09, who spent last year's track season in recovery from an ACL surgery, dominated the 600-meter dash field by nearly nine seconds.
"I was extremely impressed with Ali Chase's 600," Borner said of her co-captain's performance. "She is one of the hardest working people I know, especially through her recovery process, and it was wonderful to see all that work pay off."
Head Coach Peter Slovenski was also impressed with Saturday's performances.
"The women's 800 was the most exciting race of the day," he said after the meet. "Grace [Kerr '11], Jess [Sokolow], and Chantal [Croteau '12] worked well together. They made intelligent moves and showed a lot of guts in the last lap."
Adding to the string of victories was Molly Duffy '11, who took the 1000-meter run in an exciting neck-to-neck final stretch, Chris Head '11, who won the pole vault, and the 4x200-meter and 4x400-meter relays, which took first place.
Two of the team's first years posted two first-place finishes: Elsa Millet in the 200-meter dash and Laura Peterson in the long jump.
Millet's performance followed another spectacular showing at the December 13, 2008 meet against University of Southern Maine, where she finished the 200-meter race in 26.48 seconds to set a new school record.
The Bears soundly defeated the Huskies at the home meet, scoring 80 points against USM's 42, and sweeping almost every event. Victories by Emily Barr '12 in the 55-meter dash, Alex Peacock-Vallada '11 in the 800-meter run, Lindsey Horowitz '12 in the 3K run, and Anna Ackerman '12 in the mile helped solidify Bowdoin's victory.
The meets bode well for the team's future championships meets, which begin with the State Meet on February 6.
"As expected with a young team, all we really need now is college meet experience," said Borner of the team's first performance. "I know nerves were a factor to most people, understandably, and I'm sure we'll all get better at that as the season progresses."
The team will have another chance to practice their talent and poise with Brandeis again this weekend, at the Brandeis Invitational, which will host 10 teams.
"Hopefully, this larger away meet will motivate everyone to work hard in practice, since there will be more competition at Brandeis and at the bigger meets coming up," said Chase of the team's approaching competitions. "But I think everyone is ready for the challenge and competition, and as long as we get fired up and keep our sights on our goals for the big meets, we'll have great success."