The men’s and women’s track teams competed separately at the New England D-III Indoor Championships last Saturday. The women placed fifth at their meet, held at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass. while the men took sixth at their meet at MIT. Athletes on both squads ended the day with new personal-records.

Assistant Coach Casey Ellis, who accompanied the women to Springfield College, described the competition there as “excellent” and “top of the line for New England D-III.”

“It was one of our biggest meets,” said captain Emily Clark ’15. “Even without the boys it felt busy.”

Williams took first place with 150 points. The Ephs were followed by MIT, Tufts and Amherst, respectively.

However, Ellis said that the women met their goals, which were to place top five in New England and score 50 points.

“Our athletes were really poised to do well,” said Ellis, who noted that the women were slightly frustrated after losing to Bates in the final round of the Aloha Relays two weeks ago.

“We edged [Bates] at this meet though,” said Ellis. “So we won the state meet at the D-III championships, which was nice.”

A highlight for the women was pole vaulter Erin Silva ’15, who took second place with a vault of 3.75 meters, a new school record. Silva has owned the mark since she was a first year.

Other top finishers included Katherine Krupp ’16, who placed third in the triple jump at 11.05 meters, Addison Carvajal ’16, who took third in the pentathlon, and first year Meghan Bellerose, who placed sixth in the 600-meter race.

“It’s not often in your freshman year that you’re put in an individual event,” said Clark. “It’s really great that she got put in and stood her ground.”

For the men’s team, MIT was a new venue.

“It was a very different layout above their ice rink,” said captain Coby Horowitz ’14.

Despite the unfamiliar facilities and relatively small number of athletes brought to the meet, the men turned in good results.

“Going in, we expected to score only about 40 points, but we ended up scoring about 48,” said Horowitz.

Horowitz won the 3K with a time of 8:19.04—fast enough to qualify for nationals.

 Meanwhile, Cam Woodford ’15 scored in both the weight throw and the shot put—the first time a Polar Bear has done so in seven years.

 Jacob Ellis ’16 placed second in the 800-meter race.

 One possible challenge for the sprinters was MITs track, which some runners pegged as being considerably slower than Bowdoin’s indoor track.

Horowitz, though, said the track made little difference.

“One kid from USM said he felt slower on the turns,” said Horowitz. “I think people use that as an excuse. None of our guys even commented on it.”