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.

The throwing events were highlighted by Rich McNeil's NCAA provsional mark in the shot put, a throw of 51'2", with which Rich passed his former teammate and rival Noah Gauthier on the list of Bates top all time performers. Other highlights included huge PR's for David Pless, Chris Murtagh, and Jesse Chapman. Pless PR'd in both the shot and the weight, with a mark of 44'4'' in the shot and a four foot PR of 45'1'' in the weight. Chris Murtagh threw a lifetime best of 51'11'' in the weight, and capped the day off with a four foot PR of 42'01'' in the shot. Jesse Chapman exceeded his former best mark in the shot, throwing 43'9'' and qualifying for DIII New Englands. Mark Liu had a seasonal best throw in the weight, throwing nearly 50 feet. The throwers hope to keep the momentum going for next week's state meet.

In the sprints, Mike Jiang had a good day, finishing third in the 55 and second in the 200, with a time of 23.97. Nick DeFrancis also ran a strong time of 24.62 in the 200, placing seventh. In the 55 Hurdles, Tony Haeuser was fourth and David Hardison was seventh. Haeuser and Hardison also ran strong legs in the 4x400 meter relay, which Bates won in 3:36.

The jumps were still a bit lacking in terms of entries, but this weekend saw the return of Monthe Kofos in the triple jump, who, while still not up to form, placed third and stands to help the team out once he gets back in the swing of things. Jerome Bennett also had a nice jump of 1.81m in the high jump. The vault was a strong event for Bates, in which Sam Goldstein, Jerome, Peter Garber, and Nick Defrancis took spots 1,3,4, and 5.

In the 600, Kevin McDonald and Myles Black Ingersoll placed second and third. A bunch of distance runners ran the mile to sharpen up for states, and fared well, with Peter Gurney, Andrew Wortham, Eric Kimball, and Sam Wood taking spots, 1, 2, 4, and 5. Gurney and Wood ran lifetime bests of three and five seconds, respectively. Wood and Wortham came back soon afterward to place sixth and seventh in the 800. In the 3000, Graham Pearsall and Jamey Epstein ran to strong third and fourth place finishes, each improving marinally on their PR's with times of 9:20 and 9:29. Luke Harmeling also had a solid race, running 10:24.

The USM meet was capped off with a 4x800 in which the entire team lined the track to cheer on the uncontested team of Kevin McDonald, Eric Kimball, Conor Welch, and Peter Gurney. The managed to stave off their nonexistant competitors, cruising to a glorious victory.

Down in Boston, Bates had both Nick Barron and Tom Esponette run 4:22 in the mile, qualifying through ECAC's. James Lepage and Peter Corcoran ran 1:57 and 1:58 in the 800, with Lepage winning his heat. Griff Stabler ran 2:36 in the 1000, and Ryan Quinn ran 50.70 in the 400. In the 3000, Devin Dilts ran a solid 16 second PR of 8:45, while Sean Colligan ran a somewhat disappointing but still respectable 8:57.

USM Results

BU Results