CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Brandeis University track and field teams won three championships and three other All-UAA performances at the 2013 University Athletic Association Indoor championships at Case Western Reserve University this weekend.
The highlight of the meet for the Judges on the first day of action was women's distance medley relay. Unseeded headed into the meet, the Judges took home the UAA title by more than five seconds over second-place Chicago with a time of 12:12.91. Junior Amelia Lundkvist (So. Portland, Maine/Cheverus) ran the lead 1,200-meter leg, followed by senior Casey McGown (Clinton, Mass./Clinton) in the 400. Rookie Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.) ran the 800-meter leg and juniorVictoria Sanford (LaGrangeville, N.Y./Andover) anchored with the mile run. It was the first All-UAA honor for any of the four runners.
On day two, Brandeis claimed two more UAA titles. Junior Vincent Asante (Bronx, N.Y./H.S. for the Arts, Imagination and Inquiry) reached the top of the podium for the third time in his career at a UAA meet. Asante, who won the 55- and 100-meter dashes as a rookie, claimed another 55 crown in one of the closest races of the meet. After turning in a time of 6.55 seconds to win his preliminary race with the second-fastest time of the meet, 0.02 seconds behind Noel Titus of Carnegie Mellon, Asante ran the same time in the finals. This time he edged Demetrios Brizzolara of Chicago by a mere one-hundredth of a second. His 6.55 seconds was three-hundredths of a second off his lifetime best. Asante also scored in the 200-meter dash despite being dramatically taped up, choosing to walk around the track to earn an additional point for the Judges.
Senior Alex Kramer (No. Andover, Mass./No. Andover) kept the mile run championship with the Judges after Chris Brown '12 won it last year. Kramer edged teammate Mik Kern(Groton, N.Y./Groton) for the championship with a time of 4:20.23. Kern's second-place time of 4:20.57 was his season-best. For Kramer it represents his first UAA win and third individual All-UAA performance, having placed third in the 3,000 as a freshman and second in that event as a junior. Both were part of Brandeis's first-day DMR team that finished third with a time of 10:25.96. Kern led off the relay, with rookie soccer standout Josh Hacunda(Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton) running the 400. Sophomore Taylor Dundas (Bath, Maine/Cheverus) ran the 800, while Kramer anchored in the mile.
Also claiming All-UAA honors on Day Two was senior Kim Farrington (Shirley, Mass./Ayer)who placed second in the triple jump. Farrington, who had scored points in five previous UAA championship meets, earned her second career All-Association honor by placing second in the event, up one spot from her previous best, which came indoors in 2011. Farrington set a lifetime best on her final jump of the meet, reaching 11.07 meters (36 feet, four inches), overtaking the third-place finisher on that leap.
In addition to their All-UAA performances, Brandeis had several more scoring performances, including events that had multiple scorers.
On the women's side, the Judges had two scorers in the both the long jump and the mile run. In the field event, senior Brittany Bell (Setauket, N.Y./Hotchkiss School) placed fourth with a distance of 5.16 meters (16 feet, 11 ¼ inches), while rookie Melissa Darling (Weymouth, Mass./Weymouth)was sixth with a leap of 5.07 meters (16-7 ¾). Both of those Judges also recorded points on the track. Bell placed fourth in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.43 seconds after running a lifetime best 7.34 seconds in the prelims. Darling was fifth in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 9.22 seconds after running 9.15 in the opening round. In the mile, two of the Judges' DMR competitors, Sanford and Lundkvist finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively, with times of 5:10.91 and 5:11.16. Brandeis also added a point in the 4x400-meter relay, with the group of McGown, Bell, sophomore Michelle Fry (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia) and Whitaker finishing sixth with a time of 4:12.89.
In the team standings, the women placed sixth with a 33 points, seven behind NYU in fifth and 11 ahead of host Case Western Reserve. The men finished in seventh place with 35 points, five behind NYU. Brandeis competitors will have one last chance to qualify for the NCAA championships at the ECAC meet at the Armory in New York next weekend.