The women's indoor track team went into last Saturday's Wheaton College Invitational shorthanded due to myriad injuries, graduate school exams and fatigue. Molly Shanley '12 was therefore forced into a larger role and did not disappoint, placing first in the one-mile run to help lead the Judges to a fourth-place finish out of 12 teams with 41 points, falling short to Wheaton College, Worcester State College and Eastern Connecticut State University. The men's also competed at the meet and placed ninth of 12 teams.

Coach Mark Reytblat recognized the teams were without some of its top runners for various reasons, including Ali Sax '09, Hannah Lindholm '11, Beth Pisarik '10, Anat Ben Nun '09, Sam Donovan '11 and Ben Bray '11, all of whom were winners in the teams' last meet at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational Jan. 24 and did not think that the women's team's fourth place finish was a letdown after taking second place in their last meet. He said the decision to allow some of his top runners to rest was to give the rest of the team more opportunities to compete.

"We just decided we're not going to bring everyone so some other people could compete," he said. "That's why the score didn't look normal."

Shanley had a very strong performance in the one-mile run, finishing in a time of 5 minutes, 28 seconds. She beat Wellesley College senior Jessica Weng, the second-place finisher, by four seconds.

Reytblat was proud of his rookie distance runner, saying "she was just the best runner who ran [last Saturday]."

The women's team also had second- and third-place finishers in both the high jump and 800-meter events. In the high jump event, Suzanne Bernier '10 and Lily Parenteau '12 followed up first- and second-place finishes in the high jump event at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational Jan. 24 with second- and third-place finishes in the same event last Saturday.

Bernier jumped at 1.56 meters whie Parenteau reached the 1.51-meter mark. Lucia Capano '11, finished fifth with a jump of 4.85 meters to add to the Judges' point total.

In the 800-meter race, Erin Bisceglia '12 and Julia Alpaio '10 paced each other to second and third place finishes, running in 2:24.22 and 2:25.29.

The men's team placed ninth out of 10 teams with three points. Host school Wheaton College won the meet with 119 points.

Myles Tyrer-Vassell '12 finished first in the preliminary heat of the 55-meter hurdles in 7.99 seconds to lead the men's squad.

Tyrer-Vassell did not place in the finals, but he did earn the praise of his coach for his efforts in the preliminary race.

"[Tyrer-Vassel's times was] a personal best," Reyblat said. "It was also one of the best times in New England right now."

Tyrer-Vassell also finished fifth in the long jump, leaping 5.82 meters.

Ryan Cheng '11 paced the distance runners, finishing in sixth place in the one-mile run with a time of 4:38.13. Cheng improved upon his 17th-place finish at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational and lost out on fifth place by a mere 0.15 seconds.

Cheng's improvement was bittersweet, however, as an old high school teammate, junior David Hunt of Eastern Connecticut State, bested him at the finish line.

"The fifth-place runner was one of my best friends, and I saw him in the middle of the race and said I need to at least give him a race," he said. "He just had a little extra push at the end."

Despite the ninth-place finish for the men's team, Reytblat said the team still has plenty of time this season to improve and gear up for the more important meets later in the year.

"The full team and the best performance for our team won't come until New England and the [University Athletic Assoication] Championships."

The men's and women's teams will be back in action Saturday as they travel to Tufts University for the Tufts Invitational at noon.