The Georgetown track and field team completed its 2006 indoor season with a bang, as the women captured the title and the men finished fifth at the IC4A/ECAC championships last week.

From there, those that qualified proceeded on to the NCAA Championships last weekend, where the Hoyas garned a number of individual and relay honors.

The ECAC Championships were held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston, Ma., while the IC4A Championships were held at Boston University.

The lady Hoyas won the 2006 ECAC Championships, their first since 2001 and fifth ever. They were in fifth place after the first day of competition, but sped to a 16 point lead over second place Northeastern by the final day.

Freshmen Natasha Labeaud and Buky Bambigoye highlighted the first day by placing second and fifth in the 5000-meter and pentathlon, respectively. Labeaud finished in a NCAA regional qualifying and personal best time of 16:28.93, while Bambigoye broke her own school record with a total of 3613 points.

“Natasha’s time, years ago, would be good enough to even place at Nationals, but it was very competitive this year,” Helmer said. “She’s going to be a big time athlete for us.”

Junior Nana Hanson-Hall ran to a fourth place finish in the 800m final in a time of 2:09.31 while freshman Christine Whalen placed eighth with 2:14.34. Later, the two joined with senior Meghan O’Neill and sophomore Maggie Infeld to win the 4×800 relay in a time of 8:57.72, half a second ahead of Bucknell’s second place team.

In the distance medley relay, junior Elizabeth Maloy, O’Neill and sophomores Infeld and Ashley Hubbard combined to improve on their NCAA provisional qualifying time of 11:16.51 to place second to Brown University’s time of 11:15.90.

The lady Hoyas also grabbed second place in the 4x400m relay when the quartet of sophomore Alex Baptiste, Hubbard, juniors Kandance Ferguson and Nichole Torpey combined to run a time of 3:43.75.

Ferguson came back to finish second in the 500m run in a personal best time of 1:12.31 while Hubbard raced to an eighth place finish in the 400m dash with a time of 56.52.

In the mile run, senior Erin Henry raced to a personal best time of 4:52.76 to place fifth while freshman Avril Ogrodnick finished seventh in a time of 4:55.02. Other points were contributed by junior jumper Ashley Mondie who leapt 38 feet 11 inches to capture fourth place in the triple jump.

On the men’s side, the Hoyas finished fifth overall in team position. The Hoyas totaled 46 points, trailing champion Penn State (71), Cornell (55), Rutgers (54) and Manhattan (53).

Senior Fleet Hower won the 5000m run and became Georgetown’s first individual IC4A Champion since 2003 when Chris Lukezic won the 1000m. Sophomore Dan Nunn finished just behind in second place as the two Hoyas clocked times of 14:12.68 and 14:12.86. Senior Steven Meinelt finished sixth in the race in a time of 14:20.10.

The Hoyas also experienced relay success as they grabbed third in the distance medley relay and fourth in the 4x800m relay. Junior Brian Dalpiaz, senior Jared Jenkins, sophomore Michael Billington and senior Charles Millioen combined to run 9:54.12 for the distance medley relay.

In the 4x800m relay, sophomore Brandon Bonsey, junior Rasheed Thompson and seniors Chris Esselborn and Stanely Lagrenade ran to a time of 9:30.75. Bonsey returned to score points in the men’s mile with a time of 4:11.06 good for seventh place.

Dalpiaz and Millioen doubled in the 3000m run to place third and fourth running personal best times of 8:10.98 and 8:11.24.

Freshman Kenny Mitchell posted a personal best time in the trials of the 200m race, crossing the line in 21.36 for the second fastest indoor time in Georgetown history, .01 behind the school record set in 2001.

The men also sent a handful of runners to the Alex Wilson Invitational on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind. Senior Chris Bonner impressed as he sped to a personal best time in the 800m race, winning in an NCAA provisional time of 1:49.29.

Senior Rod Koborsi posted another NCAA provisional mark with his 7:59.34 in the 3000m run, setting a personal best. Fellow senior Tommy Manning sped to the fastest mile time for a Hoya this season with his 4:03.52, a personal record.

All Hoyas who had been accepted to compete in the 2006 NCAA Indoor Track and Field championship traveled to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. this past weekend.

The men’s distance medley relay team placed fourth and earned All-American honors. Seniors Chris Bonner, Tommy Manning and Rob Koborsi teamed up with sophomore Matt Debole to turn in a time of 9:39.39, five-hundreths of a second behind archrival Villanova. The team finished 2.37 seconds behind eventual winner and home team Arkansas.

Deboe failed to qualify in the 800m run, his only individual entry of the meet..

“The guys ran great and set a bunch of PRs [personal records],” Helmer said. “The first three legs ran superb and Rod [Korborsi] did exactly what he had to do.”

Sophomore Maggie Infeld ran 4:46.33 in the prelims of the mile, but failed to qualify for the final.

The women’s distance relay finished 13th of 13 teams in a time of 11:50.62.

Both meets were won by large margins with the Arkansas men winning 53-45 and the Texas women dominating, 51-36. Powerhouse Arkansas repeated as national champion and recorded its 19th indoor championship and 42nd track and field and cross country championship in school history. The Texas women won their sixth national championship and first since 1999.

The Hoyas will have little time off, picking up the outdoor track season on March 24th at the Stanford Invitational in Stanford, California.