2007 Outdoor Track and Field News
NEWS UPDATE (5/20/07)
McNeil Finishes 14th in Discus at Nationals
Rich McNeil finished 14th in the Discus at DIII Nationals last night. Rich was one of only three freshmen competing at the event. Rich threw 141-3 to put him in the running, the same time as one of the other freshmen who competed. The winner of the event, Dan Hytinen from Wisconsin Whitewater finished with a throw of 178-0. There was lots of rain and wind on this first day of competition, so it was particularly grueling conditions.
Noah Gauthier will compete in the Hammer Throw tonight at 4 pm Eastern Time.
Results for Nationals can be tracked by following this link
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/20/07)
Gauthier and McNeil Qualify for Nationals
The NCAA announced qualifiers for DIII Nationals this afternoon, and both Noah Gauthier and Rich McNeil have made the cut.
Noah automatically qualified in the hammer throw with his mark from New England D IIIs on May 4, when he threw 190. He later improved his mark with his win at the Open New England Championships on May 12 with his throw of 192-01. Noah is currently has the third best mark in the country. Only Kevin Becker from Wisconsin-La Crosse (215-3) and Jason Fisher from Central College in Iowa (199-5) are ahead of him.
Rich provisionally qualified for Nationals in the discus with his throw of 158-9 on April 14 at the MIT Invitational. Rich was actually the last athlete to qualify for the discus - seeded seventeenth out of seventeen. In that elite group, however, there are only three other freshmen. To have qualified for Nationals as a freshman is a huge accomplishment.
Rich will compete on Thursday in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Noah will compete on Friday.
To see all the entries for Nationals, click here
For the women, both KMoore and Izzy Alexander qualified in the steeplechase and 400m intermediate hurdles, respectively.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/20/07)
McNeil Finishes Second at ECAC Championships
Rich McNeil finished second in the discus at the ECAC Championships Friday, held at SUNY Oneonta. He threw 149-10, having just finished fifth the day before in the hammer with a throw of 157-02.
In addition to Rich, there were many other great Bates performances. CJ Murray ran a lifetime PR in the 1500 with his time of 4:00.50, good enough for eighth place (top eight score, and earn All ECAC honors). Noah Glick also finished eighth in the high jump, with his leap of 6-02.00. Another eighth place performance came from Emmanuel Drabo in the triple jump. Drabo had a great jump of 44-01.50.
The 10k runners did very well. Steve Monsulick ended his collegiate career on a high note with his fifth place finish and a lifetime PR of 32:03. Steve made the most of the last mile, and finished only 15 seconds behind the race winner from SUNY Cortland. Steve is now the eighth fastest 10k runner at Bates. Dunlap ran the second fastest 10k of his life with his 13th place performance of 33:11.
The senior sprinters had great final races as well. Sam Thomas finished fifth in the 400m with a seasonal best of 49.16. Capone ran 22.75 in the 200m Dash and 11.29 in the 100m Dash a day earlier. The 4 x 400 team consisted of Capone, Andrew Tibbetts, Glick, and Thomas and finished with a great time of 3:22.55, one of their best times of the season. It was a great way for the seniors to conclude their athletic careers at Bates, and a great opportunity for freshman Noah Glick to be part of that team and see all the excitement.
Noah Gauthier has automatically qualified for Nationals in the hammer throw, and we will be waiting to see if Rich McNeil makes the cut. he is currently ranked 17th in the country, so we will find out later today.
Results from ECACs can be found here
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/12/07)
Monster Performances by Gauthier and Capone Help Bates at Open New Englands
As noted yesterday, Matt Capone broke 50 seconds in the 400 for the first time yesterday in the trials. Today he came back in the finals with a seventh place finish, and broke 50 again with his time of 49.75, a hair slower than yesterday's 49.65, but still under the 50 second barrier. It was great to see Capone stepping up and beginning to wrap up his career with lifetime bests and breaking barriers like he did this weekend.
Noah Gauthier added to his win in the hammer yesterday with an eighth place finish in the shot put today. Noah threw 49-02.25, picking up an extra point, and bringing Bates' final score for the meet up to 13 points, which was good enough for a tie for 18th place overall out of 37 scoring teams.
The rest of the team did fairly well. The 4 x 400m relay team of Capone, Andrew Tibbetts, Noah Glick, and Sam Thomas had a seasonal PR with their time of 3:22.93. The other relay team of the day, the 4 x 800, also posted a strong time of 8:02.33. The team consisted of Andy Percy, Mike Watson, Griff Stabler, and CJ Murray. CJ had run earlier in the day in the 1500m. His race got out to a slow start, and the first half mile was 2:11. He closed his last half mile pretty evenly and finished with 4:06. Not his best race, but then again he has come pretty far so that a 4:23 mile equivalent is a disappointing day.
Some members of the team, like 10k runners Steve Monsulick and Matt Dunlap, were held out of this week's meet to rest up for next week's ECAC meet at SUNY Oneonta on Thursday and Friday.
Another highlight of the weekend was seeing Harrison "Radio" Little, Matt Biggart, and Dustin Gauthier, all of whom surprised the team by showing up. Harrison has been abroad in South Africa (though some would argue he never left his room in Hanover, NH for the past semester) since January, and with limited internet access we didn't hear from him much. It was great to see him again, and after the 4 x 800 he took some of us for a three mile cool down on some "non touristy" trails around his high school's cross country course. It was also great to see both Biggart and Dustin, who saw his brother Noah throw hammer for the first time since Noah was a freshman.
In addition to how the Bates Men competed, there were many other noteworthy performances at the meet from Bates and from other area teams.
For example, the Bates Women had three school records broken/set over the course of this two-day meet. On Friday, Izzy Alexander broke the 16 year old record in the 400m intermediate hurdles by running 63.94, an NCAA DIII Provisional qualifying time. On Saturday, Jenn Caban ran a lifetime PR and school record of 2:14.28 (2:14 high was the previous record). Amazingly, despite this remarkable time that will almost assuredly earn her a spot at Nationals, Jenn didn't even score, and placed ninth overall. This shows the depth and talent of competition at this meet, which is open to all division schools in New England. Finally, KMoore had one of, if not the best, races of her life. She won the 3,000m steeplechase in 10:33.20, breaking her own school record by a whopping sixteen seconds, and finishing three seconds in front of Colby's Anna King. KMoore went into the race seeded third, and for most of the race she was running in third, and didn't look as strong as she has in the past, perhaps due to being sick all week. Amazingly, she moved up on the pack and ran this phenomenal time. Depending on how the competition stacks up at Nationals, KMoore is definitely in contention for the National Title.
One other performance that must be noted here comes from fellow Mainer Ian London of Colby, who is now the third fastest DIII 1500m runner in the country. After being forced to drop out of the 1500 last week at DIII New Englands because someone knocked his shoe off, London finished second today with a five second PR of 3:49.27, good enough for second place. London edged out perennial rivals Mike Flint of Coast Guard and Mike Davitian of Williams, both of whom also had huge PRs of 3:49.75 and 3:49.76 respectively. It was great to see Ian out kick those two, and automatically qualify for Nationals in two weeks to end his career on a high note.
Full results of today's competition can be found here
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/11/07)
Noah Wins Hammer at First Day of Open NE's with PR of 192-01; Capone Breaks 50 for First Time
Bates had some excellent performances during first day of competition this afternoon at Open New Englands at Dartmouth College. Most significantly, Noah Gauthier won the hammer throw by over 8 feet over his nearest competitor. Noah's throw of 192-01 elevated him to the number two rank in the country for DIII, and yet remarkably he is still only third on the Bates All Time list. Noah moved up one place ahead of Jaime Sawler '00. Despite that, Noah is a mere 4.5 inches away from the coveted school record. Lucas Adams '99 has the school record with 192-5.5, and Wayne Pangburn '1960 with 192-03.5.
Another remarkable performance came from Capone, who broke 50 seconds in the 400m Dash for the first time today. He won his heat in 49.65, qualifying him for finals tomorrow. It was great to see Capone do so well in an event he does not normally run during outdoor. Sam Thomas garnered a PR in the 200m Dash with his time of 22.56, and Andrew Tibbetts ran a PR of 56.55 in the 400 meter hurdles.
When we left Bates this morning it was raining pretty hard and we thought it might be a pretty wet weekend. As it turned out, it was fairly decent weather throughout the meet. It was pretty humid during the 5k and 10k, however, which made things tough for Fudge in the 10.
Results from Day 1 of competition are posted here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/11/07)
Mark Dorian '81 Finishes 4th in 6-Day Ultra Race
Following up on the story we began last week, Mark Dorian '81 ended up finishing 4th in the 6-Day Ultra race in New York. George's total mileage over the course of six days of 397. His breakdown was as follows: 101, 49, 58, 61, 60, 68.
"Three days after the race my legs feel fine except for terrible pain in one shin (in multi-day races shin splints account for 95% of injuries), but my throat, mouth, lips and face look like I have just crossed the Sahara Desert," says Mark. "We were on CNN World Report daily, as well as local NYC stations. Finland's Pekka Aalto (one of his heroes is Lasse Viren!) won the 6 day with 505 miles, a warmup for the 5,000Km (3100mile) race he is attempting in June!"
Also interesting was that "By the bye at least three runners in the race asked me if [I knew] Paul Hammond, or if we were ever teammates?!"
The race was sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team-USA, and race results can be found here
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/4/07)
Noah Gauthier Wins DIII Hammer, Automatically Qualifies for Nationals
Day 2 of the three day DIII New England Championship meet went really well for Bates. Tibbetts, who had been in eighth place at the end of yesterday's competition, ended sixth overall, earning All New England honors in the process. This was especially impressive since, for Tibbetts, today's events were not his forte.
Tibbetts finished third in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.26, fourth in the pole vault with 11-03.5, 13th in the Discus with 85-09, seventh in the javelin with 147-05, and third in the 1500 with 4:39. Every athlete who finished ahead of Tibbetts provisionally for Nationals.
At this point, the several more members of the team showed up in the van, having left Bates at 11:30.
The 10k generally went well for Bates. Matt Dunlap and Fudge had excellent races. The goal of Dunlap, Fudge, and Percy was to break 33 minutes. Their PR's prior to running the race were 33:48, 33:05, and 33:48 respectively. At the sound of the gun, Dunlap and Fudge went out and ran pretty much straight 78s for most of the race. Percy went out a bit more conservatively in 80, but still went through in 5:16 and 10:36 for the 2 mile, setting himself up perfectly. Dunlap continued to move up and ended up sixth overall with a lifetime PR of 32:49 (almost a full minute faster than his previous PR!). Fudge just missed scoring in the top 8 by 1.5 seconds (and therefore being All New England), but still ran an impressive 32:06 and finished ninth in the 21-man field. Percy had a rough race for a number of reasons, and ran 34:39 - fifteenth place. Dunlap had this to say after his own race: Be confident in yourself; go big or go home.
Save best for last. Noah won the hammer throw by fifteen feet over second place with his winning mark of 190-00, good enough to automatically qualify him for Nationals. This now makes Noah the best junior thrower ever at Bates, and he is currently fourth in the country. Furthermore, Noah is two feet away from the school record. That is what's so amazing about all this; Noah goes auto in the hammer and is fourth in the country, yet he still does not have the school record. This speaks volumes for the throwing history at Bates and the strength of coach Joe Woodhead (who returned to his alma mater today). Matt Lopez was eleventh in the event with a throw of 157-03. Interestingly, Rich McNeil came up for this throw and the handle of the hammer broke mid-swing. He still managed to throw 153-06, but he only finished thirteenth out of sixteen.
The rest of the team showed up at the hotel in West Springfield around 9:30, and now we are all waiting for tomorrow's main day of competition. In other news from the women's team, Izzy Alexander is currently tied for second in the heptathlon (3 points separate 1-3). In the first event, the 110 hurdles, Izzy finished first and broke the school record of 15.82 by running 15.79.
Results from today's competition are posted here.
A full performance list for this meet can be found here.
The schedule for the entire meet can be found here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/3/07)
Rich McNeil Named NESCAC Rookie of the Year
Bates’ Rich McNeil (Lawrence, Mass.) came away with male Most Outstanding Rookie Performer after placing second in the hammer throw, third in the discus throw and fourth in the shot put.
Story is posted here!
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/3/07)
Mark Dorian '81 Competes in 6 Day Race
Based on a tip from Tom Leonard '78, we have learned that 1981 Bates alum Mark Dorian is competing in a 6 day ultra running race in Long Island. After four days he is sitting in fourth place. Last year Mark completed 383 miles in the Six Day. Mark has been running 36 years, completing over 200 ultras. Bests include 131 miles for 24 hours, 5:55 for 50 miles, 7:36 for 100 km, and 2:27 for the marathon. Mark has been a race director of many short, popular trail runs in the Southwest. He currently lives in El Paso, TX.
To track Mark's progress in the race, click here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (5/3/07)
Tibbetts Sitting in Eight Place in Decathlon After Day 1 of DIII New Englands
Andrew Tibbetts is currently in eighth place after competing in the first five events of the Decathlon at DIII New Englands, hosted by Springfield College. Tibbetts, the lone Bates decathlete (John Miley and Erik Born are both slightly injured), competed in the 100m Dash, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, and 400m Dash to earn 2925 points after the first day of competition.
It was a busy day for Tibbetts, as the van left Bates at 7:30 am with Coach Fresh, Tibbetts, Izzy Alexander, and Andrew Percy. We got to the college around 11:30 and Tibbetts began warming up for the 100, which was set to go off at 1:00. Coach Fresh, Izzy, and Percy went off for a run and came back in time to watch Tibbetts run a PR in the 100 of 11.95. The Long Jump went well as Tibbetts' second jump of 5.86m was his best of the day. In the shot put he threw 8.54 meters. In the high jump he hit 1.78 meters and in the 400 he ran 52.59
It was a sunny day and the meet was run very efficiently, so it was a great afternoon of track and field. Very low key, compared to "normal" track meets. Since there were two long jump pits, two shot areas, and two high jump areas, everything moved along fast. The top eight score at this meet and earn All DIII New England honors, so Tibbetts is well on his way. He finished 5th in the same event last year, and still has the 1500 tomorrow, which he should do well in. Events remaining tomorrow are Hurdles, Discus, Javelin, Pole Vault, and 1500m.
The Bates crew went out to Bertucci's in West Springfield for dinner and are getting ready for the second day of the decathlon and start of the women's heptathlon, which Izzy will be competing in.
Brief results of today's competition has been posted here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/29/07)
Bates Earns Runner-Up Title at NESCACs
At the start of the 4 x 400m relay at yesterday's NESCAC Championship meet at Middlebury, Tufts was initially disqualified for an alleged false start. Tufts was sitting 6 points ahead of Williams with the team title at stake, and only the 4 x 400 and DMR relays remaining. Bates was solidly in third. Two things were certain going into yesterday's NESCAC meet: Williams had won every conference title since 1992 (with the exception of Bates' win in 2000), and there had never been a first place tie in conference history. Several coaches and athletes questioned the official's call to disqualify Tufts, as they were closely watching Tufts and did not catch the false start. After 5 antagonizing minutes of waiting around for the officials to make their decision, the disqualification was revoked and Tufts was allowed to complete. Good thing too, because even though Williams claimed the relay win, Tufts was less than 2 seconds behind. With only the DMR remaining, Tufts was ahead of Williams by 4 points. Williams won the DMR and Tufts finished third, tying the two teams up with 197.5 points each. That left the runner-up plaque for the third place team: Bates.
The Bobcats had an exceptional meet yesterday. While we knew that Williams and Tufts were going to be vying for the top positions, we figured we would score around 100 points and have a good chance to come in third. It seemed like it would be a meet for third place between Bates and Bowdoin again. Bates ended up with 97 points and Bowdoin took fourth with 62.
The throwers must really get special attention, since they overwhelmingly scored the majority of our points. Important to keep in mind is that not one of them is a senior! Bates took a 1-3 sweep in the hammer throw with Noah winning the event in 185-10. Noah was followed by Rich McNeil at 162-09 and Lopez at 152-02. Graham took sixth place (eight score) with his throw of 141-06. It was a loud statement to the conference that Bates meant business. Three Bates throwers scored in the shot put. Noah took his second win with a put of 50-08.75, McNiel was fourth with 45-01.50, and Lopez was eighth with 41-02.25. Finally, Bates took 3-5-8 in the discus. Rich finished third with 153-09, Noah was fifth with 141-06, and Lopez was eighth with 128-06. One thing must be said about the Bates throwing squad: they deserve it.
The runners held their own and did not let the throwers carry all the weight (yeah, i know...). Matt Capone slightly injured himself during practice early last week and was held out of the 100 to focus on the 200 and 4 x 400. He finished fourth in the 200 with a time of 22.12, and ran the fastest leg on the relay to lead the team to a third place and All-NESCAC performance. Sam Thomas was in his element yesterday. While Williams' Alex Hoerman solidly won in 49.73, it was impossible to tell who had finished second between Sam and Tyler Gray from Williams. Sam ended up in second with 50.50 and Gray was third with 50.51! Tufts should thank Sam for that extra lean! Sam also anchored the 4 x 400, which also included Tibbetts in the lead-off leg and Noah Glick running the second leg.
Over the past two track seasons, CJ Murray has really established himself as one of the best middle distance runners in the conference. CJ finished in sixth place in the 1500m with a PR of 4:01.36. Fellow Mainer Ian London led the race until the last 200 when Mike Davitian from Williams and Sam Moorhead from Trinity passed him to take first and second. CJ also anchored the DMR team to a sixth place finish by running a 4:23 mile leg. In the same relay, Percy led off and was followed by Mia in the quarter, and Watson in the 800.
The distance crew, however, was mediocre. In the 5k, Dunlap finished 14th with a seasonal PR of 15:46. Fudge followed in 19th, with a lifetime PR of 15:58. The 10k guys had a rough start, as Monsulick and Sauce just didn't have it yesterday. Conor Welch and Percy missed qualifying for DIIIs in the steeple by 0.58 and 0.64 seconds respectively. However, on the last water barrier, Conor did not jump on the steeple, and cleared it, much to the delight of the crowd at the water pit.
Andrew Tibbetts had a great day. He finished eighth in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 16.71, and sixth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 57.04. In addition, Tibbetts finished fourth in the high jump, equaling his lifetime PR of 6-01.25. Tibbetts was also part of that All-NESCAC 4 x 400 relay team. Emmanuel Drabo finished an impressive sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 44-10.25, less than 2 feet behind rival Fred Jones of Tufts, who finished second.
The 4 x 100 relay team finished an impressive fifth place. The team consisted of Graham, Carlos, Caspar (who is staying on campus until the 4 x 100 stops qualifying), and Packard, and ran 44.81.
On a side note, it is great to see Graham Raymond having such a good season. Graham has really transformed himself as an athlete. While he plays football in the fall, like Lopez and McNeil, he is completely dedicated to track and field during the winter and spring. Graham has reached outside his comfort zone in the throws events to becoming a premiere sprinter and jumper. In addition to scoring in the throws, Graham consistently scores in the 100m Dash, long and triple jump, and is the lead-off leg of the A team 4 x 100 meter relay.
Overall, it was a great day to be a Bobcat. Noah Gauthier earned the team Honor Baton (the baton used in the relays, presented to the MVP, essentially, of the meet) for his double win in the hammer throw and shot put. Also as an aside: Bates remains the only team to have beaten Williams at NESCACs since 1992!
Next week Bates will travel to Springfield College, the annual site for DIII New Englands.
Results from NESCACs can be found here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/25/07)
State Meet Photos Posted
Joe Gromelski '74 was at the meet on Saturday and took several photos, which are now posted in the Photos section of the website. Many thanks to Joe for those great shots!
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/23/07)
Website Celebrates Second Year Anniversary!
Well, it's been two years since this website was first launched on a Tripod server back in 2005. It's gone through several modes and servers, but its goal has always been the same: to provide insider's coverage to Bates Men's Cross Country and Track & Field. It has been a blast managing the site, and as always, we welcome suggestions and/or comments. These can be made by sending an email here, or by posting on our message board by following the appropriate links or by visiting www.batesxc.proboards62.com
Thanks again!
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/21/07)
Bates Wins 6th Consecutive Outdoor State of Maine Title!
As the 5k got going at the end of the Meet, Coach Fresh came up to our tent, gathered us all around and said, "Guys, we can win this thing, but it is going to come down to the 5k. Go out and cheer!" Bowdoin had won the State Title for both cross country and indoor track; we didn't want them to win outdoor. Furthermore, Bates had won the outdoor title for five consecutive years; we didn't want to end it now. Listening to Coach, everyone on the team (including the 4 x 400 guys as they were warming up) spread around the track and cheered on Steve Monsulick and Fudge, the lone Bates representatives in the 5k. Each runner in the race was well aware of the implications. Colby's Jeff Alden took an early lead, but was closely followed by a pack that consisted of Nate Krah, John Hall, and Tyler Lonsdale (all from Bowdoin), and Steve and Fudge. The first mile was a slow 4:59, and we were feeling confident about Steve's kick, seeing how he was known for great finishes in cross country. But when Fudge took the lead, things were looking even better. Krah and Hall broke away from the pack and established a solid 50 meter lead. It became a matter of whether Steve would hold off Lonsdale, preventing Bowdoin from getting a 1-3 sweep in the 5k. With 400m to go, Steve and Lonsdale both significantly closed the gap between Krah and Hall. With 200 to go, Steve just put himself into a new gear and took off after the two Bowdoin front-runners. Everyone from both teams were cheering their heads off for that last 100 meters, and for a few seconds it looked like Steve would win. Krah ended up winning in 15:39.55, but Steve passed Hall and took second in 15:39.68. Hall finished third in 15:40.02, and Lonsdale was fourth in 15:43. Steve all but collapsed at the end, having given those last 200 meters everything he had. We knew we had won the meet, and we looked forward to the 4 x 400. Bowdoin's second or third leg ended up pulling and dropping out, which secured our team win.
Thus, Bates made up about a 20 point differential, where Bowdoin was leading the meet halfway through, to take the overall win. It was the 6th consecutive outdoor title for the Bobcats. Noah Gauthier won the Best in Field Award, for winning the hammer, shot, and discus. Bates finished with 226 points, and was followed by Bowdoin with 205, Colby with 96, and Southern Maine with 73.
Coach Fresh had this to say about the meet: "Bowdoin had a great meet and really made it tight at the end, but our kids hung in there remarkably well and were able to pull it out. Noah Gauthier won three events and the Tootel Award. A 1-2-3 sweep of the triple jump late in the meet and an outstanding finish by Steve Monsulick in the 5000 beat back a furious run by Bowdoin. All in all a great meet. Very pleased with how well the team continued to battle even after set backs."
Matt Capone took first place in both the 100m Dash and 200m Dash with times of 10.92 and 22.09, respectively. Sam Thomas finished second in the 400 to USM's Jimmy Sawyer, with a time of 50.11, edging out Bowdoin runner Eric Lee by 0.22 seconds. CJ Murray had a PR in the 800 with his third place finish in 1:58.22, and supplemented that with a 4th place finish ini the 1500 with 4:06.10. Tibbetts edged out Bowdoin's Ike Irby to win the 400m Hurdles by 0.36 seconds in 57.26. Sam Murphy and Noah Glick were right behind in third and fourth places, respectively. The 4 x 100 was a bit of a setback, as the final handoff between Sam Thomas and Capone was botched, the baton dropped, and Bates DNF'd. The steeplechase did not go as well as last year, as Percy took the lead almost right away, but faded the last 2 laps for a third place finish.
The field events, for lack of a better word, were awesome. Glick won the high jump (he also won indoors) with a PR of 6-03.25. Tibbetts finished second in the same event with 6-01.25. As Coach Fresh pointed out, we took 1-3 in the triple jump late in the meet, which made a huge difference. Drabo won with 45-05.75 and was followed by Erik Born with 40-07.50 and Miley with 40-06.75. In addition to Noah, the throws events went really well. In the Discus, McNeil picked up second and Lopez was fourth. In the Hammer Throw, Lopez took second with a toss of 156-02, and was followed by McNeil and Graham Raymond in third and fourth respectively. Tibbetts finished second in the pole vault with a heave of 158-05.
Special mention must really be given to the Colby distance runners. Despite the replacement of their coach Todd Coffin (indoor record holder in the 1500m, and an 8:54 steeplechaser) with a sprint coach, the Colby guys managed to win each distant event except for the 5k (though Jeff Alden, who competed in the 5k today, won the steeple last weekend in 9:32, a mere 12 seconds off Nationals). It started off with Dan Vassallo's win in the 10k, the first event on the track. Dan ran 30:52, shattering the NCAA Provo mark, and setting a facility record in the process, and unanimously earning the Best in Track award at the end of the meet. This was well deserved, coming from a guy who consistently puts in 90 miles weeks during the season and is rarely satisfied with his races. Bob Glotfelty, whose previous PR in the steeple was 10:27, won the race in 10:06, a great time for someone who can also run 2:34 in the 1,000m. Ian London had a great double, winning the 1500 by four seconds against such competitors as Owen McKenna and Thomson Ogilvie in 3:57.85. London came back in the 800 with a second place performance of 1:57.75. Winning the 800 was Dan Moss, a guy who has apparently described himself "the slow fat kid in high school," who ran 1:57.21 today in a pack of 22 runners to win his first State title. It's pretty impressive how well they did, and they are really a great team.
Bowdoin really did well today. They had great performances, had a phenomenal attitude all the way through the meet, and were gracious competitors up through the awards ceremony when they shook hands with all of us. Several of the Bowdoin and Bates distance runners went on a post meet cool down, looking forward to next week's NESCAC meet at Middlebury.
Finally, the honor baton for the meet went to freshman Caspar Yi. Caspar was recently accepted to the US Military Academy at West Point, and this was the last meet he competed at as a Bates athlete - he will be leaving for home this week. Caspar is one of the hardest working guys on the team, has arguably the best work ethic, and we were honored to have him on our team this year. He's one of the most modest and dedicated guys you'll ever meet, and it seemed hard for both Coach Fresh and Caspar to hold back some tears as the baton was presented.
Results can be found
here
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/14/07)
Bates Finishes Second to MIT at MIT Invitational
MIT won the meet with 262 points, followed by Bates with 191, Colby with 91, USM with 85, and Colby-Sawyer with 43.
Results are posted here
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/7/07)
Bates Beats Colby 113-41 at CoEd Invitational
While results are not yet electronically available, Bates beat Colby 113-41 today at the Bates Invitational. It was a pretty unique scene: races, throws, hurdles, all competed in the snow. Tom Leonard '78 was there taking photos, and they are going to look pretty cool. 2006 graduate Matt Biggart made it up to the meet, and it was great to see him.
Some highlights from the meet included Andrew Tibbetts won all 5 of his events, including the 4 x 4 relay team consisting of Capone, Tibbetts, Sam Murphy, and Sam Thomas. Tibbetts is now tenth on the All Time Bates list in the javelin throw with his toss of 157-10. Also making it onto the list for the first time was freshman Rich McNeil, who threw 142-10 in the discus (tenth on the list) and 47-01.75 in the shot put (eighth on list). Also, this wasn't pointed out last week, but at the Tufts meet, Drabo elevated himself to third on the all time list in the triple jump with his mark of 45-09.25.
While Bates had more depth, Colby looked great up front, especially in the mid-distance/distance events. Ian London, who had been sick all last week, won the 1500m unchallenged in a PR of 3:58, which bodes well for the rest of the season. Dan Vassallo looked like he was pacing teammate Bob Glotfelty to a PR but then picked it up and ran an impressive 15:10 on his own. Colby also won the 800 in 1:59.
Also, last night was the Annual Sports Awards Ceremony, held in the Grey Cage and filled with all the varsity athletes at Bates. Track was very well represented. Noah Gauthier was honored in front of all the athletes for his All American performance at Nationals this past indoor season. In addition, 4 out of the 6 senior citations were track athletes: Joel Colony, Dan Johnson, Adam Macbeth, and Keelin Godsey. Track athletes Andrew Tibbetts and Emily Williams earned the Scholar-Athlete Award, given to the male and female senior varsity athlete with the highest cumulative GPA. Ann Lovely won the female Sportsmanship Award. Ann came into Bates as a freshman and one of the top runners on the team. The rest of her four years were plagued with injuries, but she shows up to practice every day, is always around, and was unanimously voted co-captain in all three seasons. It was really nice to see her get that award, since I think it is fair to say that most people in her position would have quit the team and their involvement with it long before. Finally, KMoore won the female Athlete of the Year award, which most people in the audience guessed in advance as she was the only person to be honored for three All Americans in three different seasons.
Results are posted here
Bill Jack, however, has just made available updated lists, which are available here.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/6/07)
Bates Invitational To Be Held Outdoors, Despite Snow
First it was outdoors, then it was indoors, and now it's finally back outdoors.
While it was 85 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona all week, Bates got 13 inches of snow dumped all over campus on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. An executive decision was made by the coaches to move the meet indoors and eliminate events like the steeplechase, 4 x 100, 400m hurdles, etc.
This morning, however, Coach Fresh announced that due to the great work of the grounds crew, and with all the sun we've had yesterday and today, the track is clear and we will be able to have the meet outdoors.
Also, a meet at UNH was cancelled, which means that many of Colby's top runners will be racing at Bates on Saturday.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS (4/1/07)
CJ Wins 5k at Tufts Invite, Monsulick and Drabo Qualify Through Open New Englands
Several athletes, including Capone and Tibbetts, didn't compete yesterday at the Tufts Invitational non-scoring meet, but those who did performed well.
The meet opened up with the 10k. Dunlap was supposed to have competed but due to a 102 degree fever he did not. Monsulick, Fudge, and Percy represented Bates in the race, and none of them had ever run it before. All three qualified through DIII New Englands, and Steve qualified for ECACs and Open New Englands. They ran 32:33, 33:05, and 33:48, respectively.
In the 100, Graham Raymond '08 ran 12.01, one place behind USM standout Jimmy Sawyer, who usually battles Sam Thomas in the 400. Graham also competed in the Long Jump (19-04.25) and Hammer Throw (139-11). Freshman James Packard ran 23.93 in the 200, along with teammates Carlos Castro (24.10), Nick DeFrances (24.96), Caspar Yi (25.18), Steve Fukuda (26.18), and Pete Garber (27.61). Caspar recently got accepted to the US Military Academy at West Point, so he will be leaving us next year. Caspar is one of the hardest working guys on the team with a great attitude, and we all wish him the best at West Point, but will enjoy having him around for the rest of the season. In the 400, John Miley ran 53.16, Packard ran 55.10, and Castro ran 55.55.
In the 110 hurdles, Miley ran 17.54 and was immediately followed by Erik Born, who ran 17.62.
Sam Thomas tried his hand in the 800. He has been doing occasional middle distance workouts and getting in longer runs to gain the necessary endurance for the 800. He finished in 10th in 2:02. Both Griff and Watson ran 2:05. In the 1500, Watson ran 4:19 and Griff ran 4:20. In the 5k, CJ started out in the middle of the pack, going through in a conservative 5:01 first mile. The last couple laps, however, he picked up the pace and moved into the lead. The last time he ran a 5k was at this same meet a year ago when he ran 15:55. Sauce also ran in the event and ran a PR of 16:31. Sauce has been doing a lot of increased mileage lately, so he will be ready to go later on in the season.
In the pole vault, both Born and DeFrances attained heights of 11-03. Packard jumped 19-11.75 in the Long Jump. Drabo finished in third place in the Triple Jump, with a leap of 45-09.25. That performance qualifies Drabo for every championship meet except Nationals. In the shot put, Rich MacNeil threw 45-05 and put forward a fifth place finish in the discus with a toss of 140-08. Matt Lopez was right behind in 10th with a throw of 127-11. Miley finished eleventh in the javelin with a throw of 152-11.
One cool performance from the meet came from former Colby coach and 1982 graduate of Colby, Todd Coffin. Coach Coffin entered in the steeplechase, an event in which he holds both the Maine and NESCAC records with his time of 8:54 from the early 1980s. He finished 3rd overall yesterday with a time of 9:51. That's pretty impressive for a 20 year old runner, as 9:50 qualifies for ECACs, but Coach Coffin isn't 20. He's 48.
Meet results can be found here