Track Team Impresses In Battle Of Beantown

A few T stops down from the TD Garden, home of the Beanpot, another battle was fought between four of the city's major schools. On Saturday, the Boston College men's and women's track and field teams competed in the third annual Battle of Beantown at Harvard's Gordon Indoor Track in Cambridge.

Both the men and women of the Harvard Crimson took first place overall with scores of 166 and 137, respectively. Boston University's men's team took second place with 119, just barely edging out the Eagles' 117 points. Northeastern finished last with 102 points.
BC senior Timothy Ritchie won the men's mile run with a blistering 4:10.10, in addition to taking third place in the 800-meter with a time of 1:54.78. Freshman Louis Serafini and juniors Andrew MacIsaac and Ian Thomas were the top three finishers of the 1000-meter run, with respective times of 2:26.73, 2:27.28, and 2:27.60. Ritchie, Thomas, and Serafini each recorded IC4A qualifying one-mile runs at the Boston University Invitational the previous week.

The men's relay teams capped the day with second place finishes in both the 440-yard and 880-yard relays, with respective times of 3:27.12 and 7:47.26.

Tri-captain Mark Domaracki finished third in both the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 48.72 seconds, and the 200-meter, with a time of 22.46. These two top-three finishes come off a standout performance at last week's Boston University Invitational, where the junior broke BC's 500-meter dash record with a first place finish of 1:03.54. The previous record, 1:03.55 seconds, was set in 2001 by Jeff Normant.

BC's women's team, the two-time defending champions of the Battle of Beantown, could not manage to keep up with Harvard this year, coming only six points shy with an overall score of 131. The Huskies took home a third-place finish with 121 points, and the Terriers brought up the rear with 118.

Eagles' sophomore Anna Cioffredi posted a time of 56.69 seconds to take first place in the 400-meter dash. Fellow sophomore Kelsey Huckins cracked the top three in two events. She took second place in the weight throw, with a hurl of 16.46 meters, and third place in the shot put with a 12.88-meter throw.

Senior Mallory Champa led the Eagles' sweep of the mile run with a first-place time of 4:47.18. Freshmen Jillian King and Elizabeth Hynes followed close behind with times of 4:52.60 and 4:55.78, respectively. BC picked up another individual event win in the 4x880-yard relay with a 9:06.04 finish.

Both the men's and women's teams will get another crack at the Crimson at next weekend's Valentine's Invitational in Boston.