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. Other significant PR's in the throws were David Pless's mark of 151 in the hammer, and Nick DeFrancis's mark of 166 in the jav.
On the track, things were looking a bit less than ideal going into the meet. We woke up to a steady snow, which only intensified throughout the morning. Most of the team awaited the beginning of the meet inside the fieldhouse, hoping that it wouldn't rain. At the start of the 10k, the snow had not let up, but there was a glimpse of sun, and as the snow hit the track it rose into a steamy fog, creating a curiously comforting atmosphere. For the first half of the race, most of the field stayed together, until Bowdoin's Stan Berkow pulled away, followed distantly by USM's Ryan Dyer. In pursuit was a pack of four runners, including the Big Ticket, who ran a smart patient race, comfortably hanging on to the back of the pack. With about 300 meters left Ticket made his move, and with impressive closing speed managed to place fourth with a 53 second PR of 33:50. Jamie also had a great race, running a personal best of 34:32. By the end of the 10k, the snow had relented and the fog had given way to quite pleasant conditions.
In the steeple, Wortham took off and hammered the pace by himself, running away with a 9:27 win, only three seconds off of provisionally qualifying for nationals. Devin ran a smart race behind him, running conservatively in his first steeple of the season, and securing the number two spot in 9:51. Graham really stepped it up, improving on his steeple debut from last week by 21 seconds, running 10:08 and placing fourth, while Stitch managed to improve as well, finishing sixth in 10:23. In the 1500, USM's Justin Richardson led for the first half of the race, with Tom holding onto the number two spot amidst a large pack of runners. Halfway through, Bowdoin's Thompson Ogilvie took over, and it became clear that he was probably going to win. With a lap left, though, the number two spot was still up in the air, with a large pack in pursuit. Things started to heat up on the backstretch, as Swayze, who had been chilling in the middle of the pack, burned by his competitors, taking hold of the two spot. Tom responded, though, and the two motored down the homestretch to claim second and third, with Tom in 4:02 and Swayze in 4:03.
Bates ran well in the 4x100, placing second. Bates also took spots four through six in the 100, and spots three, four, and six in the long jump. Epler ran well in the 110 hurdles, placing second in 16.06, and David Hardison had a great race in the 400 hurdles, running 57.7 for fifth. In a highly competitive 5000 field, Bates claimed the five through seven spots. Sweetums ran a 34 second PR of 15:21, while Doug ran 15:23 and Grizz ran 15:31, qualifying for DIII New Englands and improving on his time from indoor by two seconds.
Full Results:
http://abacus.bates.edu/sports/mtrack/10/MTrack041710.txt |
