The women's indoor track team broke four school records at the Valentine Invitational at Boston University.
"The Boston University meet was intense," said Elsa Millett '12, who had a great showing at the invitational and broke multiple school records. "There can be hundreds of competitors in a single event, many who are D-I athletes running times we only dream of. I was proud of my teammates' poise as they held ground amidst the intimidation and got personal records out of it."
For Millett, she tied her success in the final stretch to her teammates' support.
"When I came around the final curve and I heard my teammates' voice pushing me on," said Millett. "I ran faster than I would myself. The track team is an encouraging community that really enables our individual efforts."
Head Coach Peter Slovenski noted Millett's strong athletic background and her progress over the years.
"Elsa had a great fall of high latitude training [abroad] in Sweden. She's always been fast, but this year she's gotten stronger than ever," he said. "We don't run on banked tracks that often, but she is very intelligent about how she's using her strength and the banked turns to gain speed."
Christina Argueta '11 also shined at the Valentine Invitational, breaking her personal best in the 5K. Christina said she had to wait until well after 10 p.m. before stepping on the track but the wait kept her excited and ready for her own race.
"That was an outstanding personal best for Christina," said Slovenski. "I promised the team that I would fast this season until Christina broke 18:00 in the 5K, so I was really happy she ran 17:49 so I could eat again."
Although this last event was an individual meet for Argueta, she still represented the Polar Bears.
"For me, while I had an individual goal for the meet, it was still very much something I was doing as part of the larger team," she said. "And even though I was not coming home on the bus, the entire bus stayed to watch my race and cheer me on. I think that's a testament to how you are never really just competing for yourself."
This weekend is the women's final team event. The team's goal of finishing in the top five at Division IIIs rests on their performance this weekend at MIT.
"We're going for places this next week, trying to rack up as many points as we can," said Millett. "There will be a lot of strategy in how we cover the events in the D-III New England meet. Based on our record, I think we have the potential to place well in this meet, and make a couple people cry while we're at it."