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 improved upon his performance earlier in the season by over 200 points, and was just 104 points shy of the provisional national qualifying mark. Also on Friday, Murtagh placed second in the jav with a throw of 198-7, furthering his lifetime best from last week by seven feet, and improving his bid to go to nationals. Rich also placed fourth in the hammer, and Sweetums placed sixth in the 10k.

Saturday morning saw some great performances as well. The steeple went quite well, as Wortham placed third with a provisional national qualifying time of 9:23, improving upon his best in the event by four seconds, running a very smart, even race. Graham also improved upon his best by four seconds, running 10:04. In the 800, LePage and Swayze ran solid times of 155.97 and 1:56.15. In the high jump, Jerome placed eighth, and in the pole vault Sam Goldstein placed seventh.

While the team faced stiff competition in the throws, Rich and Ethan managed to take places three and six in the shot, and two and six in the disc, respectively. David Pless had a great throw of 46-7 in the shot, but was just one place out of scoring.

Going into the 4x400, Bates was eight points up on Springfield for thrid place, and needed the relay team of Nick Defrancis, Swayze, Quinn, and LePage to come through in big way. While Springfield ended up not running the event, the team rose to the occaision, running a seasonal best time of 3:23.58, placing sixth. The team will continue its outdoor campaign next week at Open New Englands, hosted by Boston University.

Full Results