Track Men Face Div. I Competition
This weekend, the men’s track & field team headed to the University of New Hampshire for the Division I New England Championships. The Ephs finished fourth with 52 points against competition in all divisions. The University of Rhode Island won the meet with a score of 122 points.
The purple tracksters scored points in many of the events at the meet as they taper towards the end of the season. This meet is one of the last two including ECACs before the the NCAA championships.
Middle distance standout Mack Chaffee ’09 was the sole champion for the Ephs, winning the 1500-meter run in a blazing time of 3:51.70. Three other middle distance runners raced the 800-meter run, two of whom scored points for the Ephs. Edgar Kosgey ’10 and Mack Brickley ’08 finished within .30 seconds of each other. Kosgey finished sixth in 1:54.57, with Brickley coming through eighth in 1:54.83.
In the 10,000-meter run, the two Coreys toughed out 25 laps to place fourth and fifth. Corey Watts ’10 came through in fourth with a time of 31:08.48 - just missing the provisional qualifying standard of 31:05.00 - as Corey Levin followed four seconds back in 31:12.22.
Andrew Arons ‘08 continued his string of solid performances at 200 meters, placing second in a time of 21.52 seconds. In a sprint race of a slightly different ilk, the 400-meter hurdles, Stew Buck ‘09 just missed qualifying from his provisional heat, running 55.36 seconds in the one-lap race.
In the 3000-meter steeplechase, the 7 ½ lap relative of the 400-m hurdles, seniors Grant Burgess and Jared Oubre ran together and finished within three seconds. Burgess placed eighth to snag the last point in the event, running a time of 9:29.61. Oubre was three seconds back in 9:32.94, placing ninth.
Williams put together two solid relay teams in the 4x400-meter and 4x800-meter relay races, taking first in both events. The 4x4 team ran 3:15.12, and the 4x8 ran 7:40.86.
The field event athletes placed well within their flights. Matt Farley ’11 took fifth in his flight of the hammer throw as he threw 45.92 meters. Senior Andrew DeSalvo threw the shot 14.39 meters for eleventh in his flight, as Syvad Young finished ninth in his with 13.49 meters.
Next week, some Ephs will race ECACs to sharpen up or make last-ditch attempts at qualifying for nationals - while others rest up for the NCAA championship, which takes place the next week.
