Among the top individual performers in 2000-01 were student-athletes who represented the program's most consistent aspects. Captain Jaime Sawler '02 made his first two appearances in the NCAA championships, placing seventh indoors in the 35-pound weight throw and fourth outdoors in the hammer, giving Bates its tenth All-American in those two events in the past five years. Teammate Greg Hurley, a former NESCAC javelin champion, reached his first NCAA meet in the hammer throw as well. Junior Justin Easter '03 has been to six NCAA championships in two years with the cross country, Nordic skiing and outdoor track and field teams. His school-record time and third place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase earned Easter his second All-America award. He also won the Open New England steeplechase title, topping competitors from Division I, II and III programs. Sawler and Easter are both the top returning finishers in the nation in their events. The Bobcats also enjoyed success with their sprints and relay teams in 2001, led by Erik Zwick '01, who anchored Bates' school record breaking 4x100 and 4x400 relays and qualified for a second NCAA championship in the 400-meter dash. Along with Sawler, Zwick helped the Bobcats take home both the most outstanding track and most outstanding field performer at the 2001 State of Maine championships.

The 1998 New England Division III indoor track and field Coach of the Year, Al Fereshetian (afereshe@bates.edu ) is a 1983 graduate of the University of New Hampshire. He was an assistant for the women's track and field team at UNH before assisting at the University of Kansas from 1984 to 1988. As head coach at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., from 1989 to 1995, Fereshetian's men's track and field teams won eight Southern Conference championships. Fereshetian earned three Southern Conference cross country coach-of-the-year honors and four track coach-of-the-year awards.

	©2001 Bates College. All Rights Reserved. Last modified:6/29/01 by asl