MEDFORD, Mass. -- The Brandeis track and field teams had two winners and a host of other scoring performances, including five top-50 marks in Division III as they opened the 2013 outdoor season at the Tufts University Snowflake Classic on March 30.
On the men's and women's side, the Judges had a combined four runners score points. For the men, senior Alex Kramer (No. Andover, Mass./No. Andover) picked up where he left off in the winter season by capturing the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:59.33, nearly a second ahead of the runner-up. Kramer's time is ranked 19th in Division III this season. Classmate Mik Kern (Groton, N.Y./Groton) was third in the event, two seconds behind Kramer with a time of 4:01.34. That time was just off Kern's lifetime best for the 1,500 meters and is ranked 41st in Division III.
The women had a pair of juniors in the top eight in the 1,500 meter race. Amelia Lundkvist (So. Portland, Maine/Cheverus) and Vicki Sanford (LaGrangeville, N.Y./Arlington) finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively, with times of 4:47.22 and 4:47.80. They are currently ranked 36th and 37th in Division III. Sanford's time was a personal best by three seconds.
Brandeis's other winner on the afternoon was junior Ed Colvin (Roslindale, Mass./Catholic Memorial School), who captured the 5,000-meter race with a time of 15:08.00. He finished exactly half a second ahead of the runner-up from Amherst College and is now ranked 28th nationally. Sophomore Jarrett Harrigan (Ipswich, Mass. / St. Johns Prep) also scored in the 5K, coming in seventh with a time of 15:22.80.
Brandeis had one other top-three finish on the afternoon, as junior Vincent Asante (Bronx, N.Y./High School for the Arts Imagination and Inquiry) placed third in the 100-meter dash. Asante turned in the sixth-fastest time in preliminaries, winning his heat with a mark of 11.34 seconds. In the finals, he ran 11.33 seconds, edging the fourth- and fifth-place finishers by 0.01 and 0.03 seconds. Rookie Adam Berger (Concord, N.H. / Concord) rounded out the scorers on the men's side with a sixth-place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 42 feet, 1 1/4 inches (12.83 meters).
In addition to Lundkvist and Sanford, the Judges' only other scoring performance on the women's side came from senior Kim Farrington (Shirley, Mass./Ayer) in the triple jump. Farrington came in seventh - fourth among DIII competitors - with a distance of 34 feet, 4 inches (10.46 meters). Farrington actually tied with another competitor, but earned seventh place based on her second-best jump, which also exceeded 10 meters.
Brandeis returns to action next weekend at UMass Lowell's George Davis Invitational.