Recently, a newsletter was compiled with some brief write-ups on various aspects of Bates track and cross country, including this past year's successes and outlooks on what is to come. Take a look. (Downloads as .pdf)

Rich did incredibly well at nationals, setting a school record or 193-7 in the hammer throw, surpassing marks set by four national champions. His mark earned him fifth, and is his third consecutive all american honor in the event.

The team had a great meet this weekend, placing second at ECACs with 56 points, behind only Williams' 58. Rich McNeil had one heck of a meet, placing first in the shot and disc, and second in the hammer. His throw of 187-5 in the hammer was a three foot PR, and automatically qualifies him for nationals. His throw of 166-6 in the disc was nearly an eight foot PR, and is only two feet shy of the automatic qualifying mark. Murtagh and Ethan also had phenomenal throws in the disc, placing third and sixth with significant PR's of 158-5, and 153-9. Murtagh's throw provisionally qualifies him for nationals. read more...

Just a year after the 4x8 team of CJ, Watson, Troy, and Swayze broke the 79 year old school record in the event, running 7:44.08, this year's team of Troy, Barron, Swayze, and LePage broke the record once again, this time running 7:41.87 and placing second in New England, only behind Division I UMass Amherst. Their time is far and away one of the fastest in Division III this year. Rough splits for the foursome were 1:57 for Troy, 1:55 for Barron, 1:55 for Swayze, and 1:54 for LePage. In a fierce battle for second place, LePage surged in the last leg, beating out Boston College and UVM. read more...

The team showed its strength this weekend by placing third once again, but this time among all of the division III schools in New England. The meet got off to a great start on Thursday and Friday, with Jesse and Brett placing first and third in the decathlon. Jesse put up many great marks, including a time of 15.55 in the hurdles, which is the fifth best in Bates history. Brett's 5946 points were a 200 point improvement over his performance earlier in the season, just 104 points shy of qualifying provisionally for nationals. read more...

Bates had a spectacular meet this weekend at Colby, reclaiming the state title with an impressive 226 points, well ahead of USM's 162, Bowdoin's 145, and Colby's 81. The Bates throwers simply owned the show, sweeping the top four spots in the hammer, disc, and jav, and sweeping the top five spots in the disc. Rich won the hammer, shot, and disc, throwing a seasonal best of 180 feet in the hammer. Murtagh was second in the disc, jav, and hammer, and fourth in the shot, throwing a PR of 178 feet in the hammer, which improves his provisional national qualifying mark from earlier in the season. Duncan also had a big day, winning the jav with an eight foot lifetime best of 175. read more...

Jesse Chapman and Brett Epler had one heck of a good weekend at the Tufts decathlon, as Jesse placed first, with 6,586 points, beating out Tufts All-American Jared Engelking, and Brett placed third with 5858 points. Jesse's score qualifies him provisionally for nationals, and is just 14 points off of the automatic qualifier. Epler was well above the DIII New England qualying mark of 4700. read more...

After our last week of classes, the team took a break from studying for finals to get geared up for the post-season down at MIT. There were some impressive performances in the throws, especially from Chris Murtagh, who got back into his stride in the javelin, throwing a lifetime best 190-3, qualifying provisionally for nationals, winning the event, and putting him fourth on the Bates all time list in the event. read more...

The team had a strong opening meet this weekend at UMO. Check out the results here. As the end of the semester approaches, I might have to throw in the towel and refrain from reporting on meets in detail, since if I were to do a cursory job I would supply little more information than is on the official site to begin with, but I promise I'll put in the time for the MIT meet and beyond.

Bates was fifth at this weekend's ECAC championships. The team got off to a great start on Friday, as first year Jesse Chapman broke the school record in the pentathlon, placing second with 3,496 points. Rich McNeil PR'd for the fifth weekend in a row in the Shot Put, winning the event with a mark of 52-04.50. McNeil also placed second in the weight throw with a mark of 59-08.25. read more...

Sorry I didn't get something up about Opens, I had a midterm project due last week, but it truly was a great weekend, with impressive performances across the board, which you can read about on the official team site. Andrew Wortham got the honor baton for running 15:05 in the 5000, which to the best of coach's knowledge is the fastest a freshman has ever run at Bates.

The team placed seventh in the Division III New England Championship meet, held at home this past Friday and Saturday. Things got off to a great start on Friday as Jesse Chapman placed third in the pentathlon with 3,360 points, qualifying provisionally for the NCAA chapmionships. Chapman outdid the other pentathletes quite decidedly in the shot put, though he had hoped for a slightly better mark. He made up for it in a big way in the high jump, however, as he jumped significantly higher than his previous best, tying for first among the pentathletes with a jump of 6' 4".read more...

This weekend the team headed down to Boston, with competitors at BU and MIT trying to get some last marks and experience in before the postseason. At BU, Rich McNeil improved upon his lifetime best in the shot with a mark of 15.77m. Eric Kimball ran a spectacular 5000, winning his heat in a time of 15:33, qualifying for DIII New England's and improving upon his prior best in the event by 11 seconds. The 3000 was also quite exciting, as Doug Brecher and Peter Gurney took command of their heat early and held on to both run significant PR's of 8:41 and 8:43, well under the ECAC qualifying mark of 8:50. Andrew Wortham also ran a solid time of 8:51. read more...

While Bates ended up placing third at this weekend's state championships with 144.5 points, behind USM (174.5) and Bowdoin (169.5), it was actually a great meet for most of the team, which just goes to show how strong the state of Maine is. Numerous people had tremendous lifetime best performances, such as Rich McNeil, who threw 18.29m (60 feet!) in the weight throw, and 15.62m in the shot, winning both events quite convincingly and earning the Peter Goodrich Award for the most outstanding field athlete. James LePage was awarded the honor baton for the meet due to his exciting 800 meter race in which he led from the gun and just managed to hold of Bowdoin's Brett Stein, winning by a tenth of a second with a PR of 1:56.2. read more...

This weekend the majority of the team competed at the USM Invitational. While the teams present, including Bates, did not come in full force, the Bates team pulled off a victory and looks to be ready to go for next weekend's state meet, which will also be hosted by USM. Several Bates athletes ran at Boston University instead, achieving qualifying marks for meets down the road. read more...

The track team had the unusual opportunity to compete against the Division I University of Maine squad this past weekend, as well as against frequent adversaries USM and Colby. The team fared quite well, finishing second with 214 points, only 30 behind Maine's 244, and well ahead of USM's 151.5. The team displayed a great deal of energy throughout the meet, enjoying the opportunity to compete at home. While Maine's high calibur athletes took first in most events, the Bates men took many of the top spots right behind them, and managed wins in four events. Rich McNeil followed up his wins in the weight and shot from last weekend by winning both events again, posting a provisional national qualifying mark in the weight. Sam Goldstein also repeated his win in the pole vault, improving on last week's mark of 4.40m with an impressive 4.55m. Joining them were Ryan Quinn, who won the 200 in 23.45, and freshman Andrew Wortham, who cruised to an outstanding 15:29 victory in his first 5000 on the track.read more...

The full track team competed for the first time this season at MIT on Saturday. While the team placed second to MIT, there were many notable performances that bode well for the season to come, including five event wins. Several freshmen stepped up to the plate and showed that they will be significant contributors to the team, including Tony Haeuser, who placed second in the 55 Hurdles in a time of 8.10, and Andrew Wortham, who placed third in the 3000 meter run with a time of 8:56. The honor baton went to Ethan Waldman, who threw 14.35m in his first time competing in the weight throw, and finished fifth in the shot put with a mark of 13.63 meters. read more...

The track season started up this past Saturday at the annual Bates Pentathlon, where Bates fielded three competitors, all freshmen, against stiff competition in two athletes from USM and five from Tufts. Jesse Chapman was the top Bates competitor, finishing fourth with a score of 3,137, the seventh best in Bates history. Chapman's score qualified him for the New England Division III Championships, hosted this year by Bates, and the ECAC championships. Chapman also qualified for New England's in the 60 meter hurdles, with a time of 8.89. read more...

The Bates men finished 10th at the New England Division III Championships on Saturday, hosted at Twin Brooks by the University of Southern Maine. Steady rain throughout the race made for wet conditions, but it didn't dampen the runners' spirits, as it was clear to anyone watching that the entire team put forth the best effort possible. Devin Dilts '11 finished first for the team, coming in 17th place in 25:52, earning him All-Region honors. Eighteen seconds behind him and also earning All-Region honors was Doug Brecher '10 in 27th with a time of 26:10. read more...

On Friday, the 13th of November those team members not competing in Saturday's regional championships ran a 3000 meter time trial on the Bates indoor track. Troy Calandra '12 (Catnip) won the event with a time of 9:10, followed by Peter Gurney '11 (Sweetums) in 9:13 and Griff Stabler '10 in 9:15.read more...

Those Bates men not competing at regionals on saturday will be running a 3000 meter time trial on the Bates indoor track tomorrow, Friday the 13th. Things are looking surprisingly unpredictable at this point, with five runners projected as having a reasonable chance of victory.read more...

Lewiston, ME- This Friday the team members not competitng in this weekend's NESCAC championships competed in a 5000 meter time trial on the Bates outdoor track. Sporting a purple and black unisuit, James LePage '13 took the win after making a convincing move with 1000 to go, finishing in 16:30. Behind him was Ken Whitney '13, who also separated himself from the pack in the last 1000, but could not keep up with LePage, and ended up finishing in 16:36. It was an encouraging performance for the two freshmen, who had previously been experiencing somewhat of a slump. Full Results

WATERVILLE, ME- The H1N1 virus hit the Bates campus hard this past week, and as a result much of the cross country team had to sit out this weekend's State of Maine Championships at Colby College. Fielding only thirteen of the twenty-six members of the team, Bates was certainly hurting going into the race, but came out strong, with solid performances across the board. Bates finished third with 75 points, behind University of Southern Maine (34 points), and Bowdoin (29 points). The team still solidly defeated Colby (123 points), thanks largely to the outstanding performance of Junior Devin Dilts, who managed a third place finish behind Bowdoin's Colman Hatton and Thompson Ogilvie. read more...

BOSTON, MA - Travelling to Franklin Park for the second time this fall, the cross country team placed 32nd at the Open New England Championships on Saturday. While not the finish the team had been hoping for, there were certainly many performances that bode well for meets to come. Junior Devin Dilts managed to lead the team once again, finishing 73rd in a time of 25:54, despite muddy conditions. First year Ryan Rice also turned in a solid performance, running second for the team in 26:52. Also promising was first year Andrew Wortham's finish of 27:05, placing him fourth on the team in his first collegiate 8k.read more...

BOSTON, MA - The Bates College men's cross country team placed an impressive fifth place at the 41st running of the Codfish Bowl Invitational held at Franklin Park, in Boston, Massachussetts. The team was led by junior co-captian Devin Dilts, who placed 7th individually in a time of 25:40. It was a lifetime PR for Dilts. Following Dilts was co-captain Doug Brecher, who placed 16th overall in 26:06. Junior Tom Esponette was third for Bates, running 26:43 to place 31st. First year Ryan Rice ran an impressive PR of 26:48, good for 34th. After Rice was Sean Colligan (26:53) and fellow first year Eric Kimball (26:58), placing 38th and 41st respectively. Rounding out the top seven was yet another first year, Graham Pearsall, who ran a big PR of 27:11 to finish in 53rd place. read more...

NEW GLOUCESTER, MAINE - Doug Brecher earned his second collegiate cross country win at Pineland Farms in a duel meet against Bowdoin College. Brecher crossed the line in 26:21, just one second in front of co-captain Devin Dilts who finished second. Sophomore Sean Colligan was edged out by Coleman Hatton of Bowdoin, and finished fourth in a time of 26:47, a huge PR. read more...

LEWISTON, MAINE - Kicking off what promises to be a memorable season, the mens' varsity team bested the alumni for the first time in three years at the Alumni Race on Saturday. Infused with a host of talented new first years supplementing one of the strongest returning veteran lineups in years, Bates varsity claimed a 28-31 victory over the alumns. The team was led by senior captain Doug Brecher, who finished second to Steve Monsulick '06, who claimed his first ever Alumin Race victory. Following Brecher was junior co-captain Devin Dilts, who finished 5th behind alumns Joel Anderson and Matt Biggart. In a fantastic display of the limitless potential this year's freshman class brings, first years Andrew Wortham and Ryan Rice claimed the next two places on the team. Rounding out the team's top seven were sophomore Ben Chebot, senior Griff Stabler, and junior Ben Taska. read more...

With the conclusion of the outdoor track season culminating in Rich McNeil's second All-American award for the hammer throw, we look forward to summer training to prepare for cross country in the fall. With one week left on campus, the team will sadly part ways and say goodbye to graduating seniors. Coach Fresh held an informational meeting just weeks ago to bring the returning team members up-to-date on goals for next year, summer preparation, the schedule, and incoming freshman. All of those areas look very promising. Schedule highlights include going to Franklin Park twice, ditching the infamous Tufts meet, and the second running of the new Colby-Bates "Wave Race". The incoming freshman class looks to be loaded with talent, bringing in some of the most competitive runners in New England to the Bates program. As always, the team has many summer miles ahead if it hopes to improve from it's 13th place finish at regionals last year. I'm currently in the process of finding out if it is possible to update this website from home over the summer with relevant postings, otherwise in the meantime I will be sure to leave at least one more post before the summer begins.

In other news, if you are not yet aware, the above picture was taken just after a new school record was set in the 4x800m relay at Open New Englands at UMass Amherst. The quartet of freshman Troy Calandra, senior Mike Watson, senior Chris "CJ" Murray, and freshman Peter Corcoran took down the 79-year old record with splits of 1:58, 1:56 and 1:56, and 1:53, respectively, to set a new school record of 7:44.08. The old record was 7:52.8. Congratulations to those fine gentlemen, and godspeed to all graduating seniors.

If you want to look at stories and results from last year, the front page was archived here.