A week before the NCAA Championships next weekend, the men's and women's track teams faced their stiffest competition to date this season, facing teams from across the East Coast in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at New York University last weekend. Competing against over 50 teams whose athletes qualified for the event, both squads had strong personal times despite disappointing overall results.On the men's side, Devon Holgate '11 finished an impressive sixth out of 30 competitors in the 1-mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 14 seconds. It was the men's team's only 3 points in the meet. In the 3,000-meter run, Ed Colvin '14 notably placed 14th with a time of 9:00.69. Dan Anastos '11 finished 7 seconds behind Colvin, good for 16th place.

Vincent Asante '14, recently named University Athletic Association Rookie of the Year, notched a school record in the men's 55-meter dash with a time of 6.48 seconds. The finish earned him 10th place in the event. Asante also placed 32nd in the 200-meter dash, while Charlie Pino '12 finished the 200 in 30th place.

Distance runner Chris Brown '12 was extremely impressed with Asante and Pino's efforts. "They all were amazing, notching personal bests or tying school records," he said. "We could really use those types of performances next weekend at Nationals."

In the distance medley, Brown, Brian Foley '13, Mik Kern '13 and Mingkai Lin '12 pieced together a 10:09.50 finish, good for ninth out of 21 teams. The men's team overall earned 44th place out of 51 teams.

Brown was proud of his team's efforts last weekend.

"We've worked toward this all season. A lot of us are tired, but we're heading to our final competition next weekend, and we just have to keep putting forth our best effort like we did at NYU," he said.

The women had their fair share of success as well last weekend. Marie Lemay '11 notched a seventh-place finish in the 1-mile run, with a time of 5:03.92. She received 2 points in the event for her accomplishment.

Annifreed Sinjour '13 ran the 400-meter dash in 59.75 seconds, a personal best for her, and good for 16th place in the event. In the 1,000-meter run, Victoria Sanford placed 25th, finishing in 3:07.33.

In other events, Lily Parenteau '12 finished 10th in the high jump, reaching 1.58 meters. Lucia Capano '11 landed 17th in the triple jump at 10.79 meters. Kim Farrington '13 was not far behind Capano, grabbing 21st with a length of 10.72 meters.

Capano also finished 21st in the long jump, jumping 4.85 meters.

Overall, the women placed 40th out of 45 competing teams.

Lemay was satisfied with the team's overall performance. "This was not a meet that everyone qualified for," she explained. "Some people ran really well, such as [Sinjour], and others had off days. We just have to build upon these performances heading into Nationals next weekend."

She also said that the team was very excited for Nationals. "We're really pumped," she said. "It should be a great meet and we can definitely build upon some solid performances from ECAC's."

Both teams are set for their final indoor track meet of the season, the NCAA Division III Championships, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.