Despite having another strong season, Ali Sax '09 was not happy with her performance at the Terrier Classic Jan. 26, where she leaped a season-low 4.59 meters in the long jump event. She did not exactly bounce back in kind at last Saturday's Tufts Invitational, but she did rebound with a season-best performance in the triple jump, her other marquee event. "It felt great," Sax said. "I was really happy to be back up where I should be."

Sax's first-place leap of 10.96 meters highlighted a sixth-place finish out of 14 squads for the women's track team. The men's team, however, finished last out of 11 teams despite good performances in the one-mile and 1,000-meter runs.

Besides Sax, the women's team got one other first-place finish. The foursome of Michelle Gellman '11, Meaghan Casey '09, Marie Lemay '11 and captain Olivia Alford '08 took the 4-by-400-yard relay in 4 minutes, 4.26 seconds. The team trailed the Amherst College foursome after the first three runners finished, but Alford chased down Amherst's last runner halfway through the final 400-yard segment and held on for the duration of the race.

"It's really motivating having someone running in front of you so you can catch them," Alford said. "I tried my hardest, and everyone was cheering. I could hear my teammates cheering from the sidelines, so that definitely helped."

It was a big victory for a foursome that some are touting as one that will compete deep into the indoor track season.

"They ran extremely well," co-head coach Mark Reytblat said. "We're not that far away from then qualifying for [the NCAA Championships]."

Alford then sustained her momentum with a third-place finish in the 200-meter event in 26.84 seconds, and Gellman continued her solid rookie season with a seventh-place finish in the event with a time of 27.25 seconds.

Four Judges also finished among the top nine in the 800-meter run, led by Lemay, who finished third with a personal-best time of 2:23.44. Beth Pisarik '10 and Jess Girard '10 placed fifth and sixth in 2:25.21 and 2:25.26, respectively, and Emily Owen '11 rounded out the team's performance by finishing ninth in 2:27.73.

Grayce Selig '11 continued the solid rookie showing with a personal-best time of 5:16.24 in the one-mile run, good for eighth place, and Casey continued to work back into form after spending last semester abroad in Spain, finishing ninth in the 600 meters in 1:41.74.

Meanwhile, the men's team had a letdown one week after 13 out of 14 distance runners had season-high times at the Terrier Classic. Only four runners had season-high times this week.

"It's tough to go for personal-best times two weeks in a row, especially if you're running a distance race," assistant coach Pete Sampson said. "You pick your spots when you want to go fast, and other times you kind of like to work on things and get prepared for the future. This was working on speed for a lot of people."

Three of those personal-best times came from rookies in the one-mile run. Paul Norton '11 was the fastest of the group, finishing sixth in 4:26.48, and Ben Bray '11 followed immediately thereafter in seventh place in 4:26.52. Dan Anastos '11 was just behind them in ninth place with a time of 4:29.26.

Normally, Norton and Anastos run the longer 3,000- and 5,000-meter events, but with the track at Tufts University being slower than usual, the coaches decided to have many of the distance runners compete in shorter races. This happened on the women's side too-Lemay and Girard competed in the 800-meter event, and Alford and Gellman both ran the 200-meters.

Everyone else on the men's team struggled. Dan Suher '08 finished in fifth place in the 800-meter event in 1:59.20, but he was still disappointed by his performance.

"I think today, at least as far as the rest of the season was going, wasn't as strong as the rest of the season, but at the same time I wouldn't consider it a step back. I think was kind of the expected down week," he said.

Captain Pat Gregoire '08 was also not happy with the team's finish, despite taking fourth place in the 55-meter hurdles in 6.76 seconds.

"The team was injured, and we're all pretty tired," he said.

The track teams next return to Boston University for the Valentine Classic next Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m.