TRACK & FIELD NOTEBOOK
The Vermont Catamounts have a pair of meets this weekend as final tune-ups before the upcoming America East Championships at the end of the month.
 
Women's track & field kicks off the busy stretch with the opening day of Boston University's Valentine Invite (Feb. 8) while the men close the meet Saturday (Feb. 9). The two squads return home to host the North Country All-Comers Sunday (Feb. 10) at 12 p.m. in Gardner-Collins Indoor Track.
 
RELATED LINKS
Valentine Invite (Feb. 8 & 9): Watch ($) | Live Results | Meet Schedule | List of Entries
North Country All-Comers (Feb. 10): Live Results | Meet Information
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"The Valentine Invite is an opportunity to compete with not only the best in the area, but quite often with the best in the world," said head coach Matt Belfield. "Our women and men will be challenged to bring their "A game" amidst the controlled chaos of this meet. I'm very excited to see what happens now that we are approaching the championship season."
 
When previewing the North Country All-Comers, Belfield said, "Sunday is a very important event for many of the folks in our program as they look to tune-up for, or make their way, to the America East Championships. We expect a high level of performance from our student-athletes, so if they qualify for the Championships, it is a true tribute to their commitment and competence.  We are grateful to Plattsburgh for joining us and look forward to some elite-level club athletes in the field as well."
 
VALENTINE INVITE (Feb. 8 & 9)
The annual David Hemery Valentine Invitational is hosted at Boston University Track and Tennis Center. The indoor facility features a 200 meter banked oval track on the Terriers' campus and will hold a field of approximately 3,500 student-athletes from more than 90 schools for this year's invite.
 
Despite the invitational being a non-scoring event for the teams, last year's event produced some high individual finished for the Catamounts. Justin Liechty highlighted the Vermont men with an ECAC/IC4A qualifying time of 48.68 seconds in the 400m to earn a second-place finish. On the women's side, Lauren Trumble (4th) and Katie Nolan (5th) ran qualifying times of 4:54.18 and 4:54.88 in the mile, respectively.
 
NORTH COUNTRY ALL-COMERS (Feb. 10)
The Catamounts host SUNY Plattsburgh Sunday afternoon at Gardner-Collins Indoor Track for the only home meet of the indoor season. It will mark the first time that Vermont has held an indoor event since Dec. 3, 2016 when America East foes Hartford came to town. UVM, SUNY Plattsburgh, clubs, and open athletes will race around the 160m flat track and compete in field events at the Cats' indoor facility.
 
LAST WEEK'S MEETS
The Catamounts competed in two meets last week with the 51st New England Championships taking center stage in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The UVM women secured eighth place with 37 points while the men tallied eight points to finish 18th in the annual indoor meet. Wins in the women's distance medley relay and 4x800 relay helped the Catamounts get a crucial 20 of their 37 points. Several Catamounts in the men's competitions advanced through preliminaries and the men's 4x400m relay team recorded its fastest time of the season. A group of men's distance runners traveled to Staten Island, New York for the Villanova Invite (Feb. 2). John Benner set a personal-best time in the mile (4:11.15) and Taylor Kracher completed the 800m in 1:51.57 to earn victories at the meet.

WOMEN'S RELAY SUCCESS
Two relay victories headlined Vermont's results at the New England Championships (Feb. 1 & 2). Caroline O'Shea, Alex May Curtis, Ava Meyer, and Lauren Trumble took victory in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:46.78 to win by a margin of 11.68 seconds on the first day of the event. The DMR pace ran by the Catamounts last weekend is the top mark for America East this season. The following day, Meyer, O'Shea, Trumble, and Jane Leighton won the 4x800m relay by 6.90 seconds with a time of 9:03.87 that is also the fastest mark in the conference.
 
CATS IN THE REGIONAL RANKINGS
Both the men's and women's track & field teams remain in the USTFCCCA's Northeast rankings for the third week in a row. The Vermont women vaulted up to 27th in the region after their eighth-place finish at the New England Championships last week. The five-spot jump was the largest by a team in the regional ranking. On the men's side, the Catamounts are currently 26th in the Northeast region.