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.

Bates dominated the throws, with McNeil, Chris Murtagh, Mark Liu, Ethan Waldman, Elliot Foster, and David Pless taking places one, two, three, five, seven, and eight, respectively, in the weight. McNeil, Murtagh, Liu, Waldman, and Foster all threw the best marks of their lives. McNeil and Pless also took the top two places in the shot. Jesse Chapman placed a solid fifth in the shot with a mark of 13.54.

The sprinters got things going for the team early on as well, as Mike Jiang and Ryan Quinn took the top two spots in the 55, with Nick Marinakis placing fifth. The 55 hurdles were also a great event for Bates, as Tony Haeuser won the event in 7.96 seconds, Jesse Chapman placed third in 8.11, and Brett Epler placed fifth, running 8.36 in the prelims. David Hardison also appeared to run a time comparable to Epler's, but was, unfortunately, disqualified. Ryan Quinn came back for the 200 and placed second in 23.2.

Moving up in distance, in the 600 Griff Stabler and Peter Corcoran placed fourth and fifth. In the mile, Nick Barron competed hard, but had to settle for sixth in a strong field, running 4:23. Peter Gurney was right behind with a considerable PR of 4:25. Also in the mile, Jeff Roeser improved upon his performance from last week, running 4:52, and Luke Harmeling ran a PR of 4:56. The 800 was, of course, highlighted by LePage's win. Barron came back from the mile to place fifth in 2:00.2, and Kevin McDonald ran a strong time of 2:01.9. The 1000 was somewhat disappointing, as Bates had few entries in the event. Myles Black-Ingersoll was in scoring position with a lap to go, but couldn't hold on, finishing seventh, but still managing a marginal seasonal best of 2:42.2.

The 5000 saw some great lifetime best performances amidst an incredibly strong field. Devin Dilts, Andrew Wortham, and Doug Brecher got down to business and set an agressive pace early on, but were overtaken by phenomenally surprising performances from Bowdoin's Colman Hatton and Stan Berkow. The Bates men still finished strong as Devin Dilts placed third (15:17), and Wortham (15:22), Brecher (15:26), Sean Colligan (15:32), and Eric Kimball (15:44) swept places five through eight in the deep, 29-man field. Wortham's time was a seven second improvement on his previous best from two weeks prior, Colligan's was a 19 second PR, and Kimball's was a 24 second PR. Graham Pearsall and Sam Wood both ran 21 second PR's of 16:03 and 16:12, respectively. Jamie Epstein also ran a 25 second PR of 16:17.

Bates took somewhat of a hit in the jumps, but had some people step up to help out the team. Ryan Quinn, somewhat unusually, competed in the long jump, finishing fourth with a mark of 6.26m. Jesse Chapman was behind him in fifth with a mark of 6.07m. Brett Epler had a good day in the high jump, placing third with a mark of 1.86m. In the Pole Vault, Sam Goldstein settled for third, and while Peter Garber and Nick Defrancis both cleared a respectable height of 3.89, the two were just edged out of scoring.

Full Results.