By Ariana Giorgi ‘13

Track and field members who qualified for the IC4A and ECAC Championships traveled to Boston University this weekend to end their winter season.

Participants are invited to attend if they won their event at conference championships or met qualifying standards.

“Boston University has an incredible indoor facility and a really fast track,” Neil Franzese ‘14 said. “I was very excited to run there.”

Franzese participated in the distance medley relay, alongside seniors Chris Parker and Dayne Mosconi and freshman Matt McMurray. They placed 19th out of 22 teams in the event, and failed to qualify for the finals.

The men’s team sent nine runners to the meet in total, including the 400-meter relay team of Ryan McVeigh ‘13, Nick Hepp ‘13, Jarrel Bobb ‘16, and Bill Leonard ‘14. The quartet finished 21st out of 25, but did not qualify for the finals despite running the third-fastest time in school history (3:17.17).

The men scored no points during the meet.

The women’s team, ranked 22nd among 52 Division I teams, sent four girls to compete.

Elise Buffinton ‘14 earned second place in the pole vault with a 12’ 7.5 vault, and Rachel Pena ‘14 took the bronze in the 20lb weight throw with a 61’3 toss, a personal best for the junior.

Devin Smith ‘16 also broke her own school record by 1.5 seconds in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.58, which put her in 13th place out of 33 runners.

The team’s first outdoor meet of the spring season will be the Tribe Open at William & Mary March 22-23.