Abbey D Sets the Tone for the Mile

Jan 14, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff

This past fall, Dartmouth junior Abbey D’Agostino didn’t waste any time to showcase her fitness. This indoor season, she’s following the same strategy.

D’Agostino virtually ran a solo time trial this past weekend at the 44th Dartmouth Relays. Her 4:34.15 winning time in the women’s mile broke the previous meet record of 4:38.60 set by Sinead Delahunty back in ’92 and her previous school record of 4:38.44.

Full Results from the Dartmouth Relays

When we say “solo,” we mean that D’Agostino ran all by herself en route to an NCAA leading time. D’Agostino won by over 18-seconds over second place Sydney Fitzpatrick (4:52.21) from New Balance Boston.

Assistant coach Mark Coogan told Flotrack, “She went out a little bit faster for the first lap and basically just ran even splits for the rest of the way.”

Rather than travel elsewhere for better competition or to run on faster track, D’Agostino chose to compete in her home invitational. “She doesn’t wanted to be treated special even though she’s a special athlete. She said, ‘I want to run the Dartmouth Relays,’ and I said, ‘That’s great,’” said Coogan.

Even still, her feat doesn’t even stop there. The Leverone Field House at Dartmouth College isn’t oversized, banked, or secretly short. It’s a flat 200m track.

That’s why if you look at her time on the current NCAA Indoor List, it’s 4:31.46. The NCAA conversion factor takes into account that D’Agostino didn’t have the liberty of running on “performance enhancing track” and she actually gets rewarded for her effort.

Looking back to last year, this time would have been the 5th fastest in the NCAA, but it again comes with an asterisk. All four lower marks were either run on a banked 200m or oversized 300m track.

Not bad for the first week of the season.

Up next for D’Agostino will be a 3000m at the University of Washington Invitational.