Coming off a six-week break, the indoor track teams struggled in their second meet of the season, with the women's squad placing second of four teams and the men's side finishing in last place last Saturday at the Bowdoin Invitational The Bowdoin men won their home competition with a score of 121 points, more than double Brandeis' 55. The University of Southern Maine and Colby-Sawyer College also competed.

David Weinstein '08 had a strong showing in the men's short distance category, winning the 200-meter dash ahead of 13 other runners and finishing second in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.71 seconds. In the 400-meter Feodor Melnikov '09 came in fourth place out of eleven runners with a time of 52.60 seconds.

In middle-distance races, Geff Fauchet '08 claimed first place by a hair in the 600-meter event with a time of 1:28.63. In the 800-meter, Ryan Parker '06 dominated the field in his best event to take first place with almost five seconds to spare, posting a time of 2:1.27.

"There wasn't a whole lot of competition for me today so I took it easy through the first half of the race and then blew everyone away in the second half," Parker said.

Parker, who also runs the mile, has qualified in the 800-meter for the last three NCAA Division III championships, placing second in last year's competition.

"A really big goal is the Brandeis school record which is around [1:50.30] so hopefully I can get close to that but winning nationals is the big focus for me," Parker said.

In the mile run, Brandeis runners finished in third and sixth places in the field of seven. Off the track, Jordan Rothman '09 won the high jump with a leap of 1.68 meters.

On the women's side, Bowdoin blew away the competition with 115 points, followed by the Judges, who finished second with only 36.

Short-distance runner Kate Henry '09 won both of her events, taking first place in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.80 seconds and the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.69 seconds. The woman's short-distance runners also posted a victory in the 800-meter relay against their Bowdoin rivals.

Meaghan Casey '09 placed second in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:46.79. In the 800-meter, Megan Bisceglia '07 took second place with a time of 2:24.79, followed by Alyssa Ross '07 in third at 2:29.56.

In the 1000-meter race Camille Stevens-Rumann '07 and Mary Schillinger '08 also posted a two-three finish with respective times of 3:10.97 and 3:11.80 .

Long distance coach John Evans dismissed the team's disappointing finish by saying that at this early point in the season, the focus is more on the condition of the runners than on overall tallies.

"It wasn't one of our better meets, but I was kind of expecting that," Evans said. "When you are coming off break, the meet was really meant to see where everyone is. The meet shows that we have a lot of work to do over the next month or so."

Sprinters coach Mark Reytblatt said he also agrees with the level of difficulty of running indoors following a multiple week break.

"It's hard to do coming off break, especially for sprinters," he said. "You need to have access to indoor facilities, and most of the kids went home and were training outside and didn't have a quality workout."

The team has the chance to get back on track in its home opener, the Reggie Poyau '04 Memorial, Saturday at noon.

Evans said that he has high expectations for the team in the upcoming meet.

"We are going to have everyone back. All the people who need another week of training will be back racing next week and we'll have a much stronger team.