Men's Track & Field Wins Little Three Championships

Complete Results

Middletown, CT-- On a rare sunny day, the Ephs ran, threw, and jumped their way to another consecutive Little Three Championship, beating out Wesleyan and Amherst on Wesleyan's track. The Ephs won the meet handily with 185 points. Wesleyan was 2nd with 102 points followed by Amherst with 91. The Ephs might have won by more if not for a rule which stipulated that only two athletes from any one school could score in a given event. In other words, a team that placed 1st through 5th in an event would still only score 12 points, 7 for 1st place and 5 for 2nd place.

It was the Ephs 21st consecutive Little Three Championship victory.

"For the team as the whole, it was the gutsiest we have competed so far in the outdoor season," remarked one athlete. While many other New England rivals were competing in Princeton, NJ, the Ephs competed  in this smaller meet, thought to be not conducive to setting personal best times. That would turn out to be far from the case.

The Ephs took 15 out of a possible 19 1st places including senior Eric Jonash's 1st place in the pole vault (he was the only competitor). Sprinters were once again dominant. Teammates Pierre-Alexander Meloty-Kapella '10 and Taylor Fitzgerald '11 twice went head-to-head in the 100 and 200 with Meloty-Kapella twice emerging victorious and also grabbing the ECAC qualifier with a time of 11.18. Fitzgerald took 2nd in both events. The Ephs also went one-two in the 400 with freshman Richard Fusco running 49.78 behind Alex Hoerman's 49.17. Both runners notched the All-New Englands qualifier. In hurdles, Matt "Sully" Sullivan won the 110 Hurdles in 15.55 (an All-New Englands qualifying time) and Stew Buck won the 400 Hurdles for the second consecutive week in 55.50.

The jumping unit was again solid for the Ephs. Steve Rubin '11 soared to a 6.40m finish with Tomas Kearney '12 finishing second. Kearney also finished behind Rubin in the triple jump, where the men took 2nd and 3rd, and he also finished 2nd in the high jump behind senior Eric Jonash. Rubin had this to offer: "Tomas and I got a late start this season because of injuries, but we're starting to benefits of all the weight training we did over spring break. We all performed well at the end of indoors, and we're looking to take those jumps and kick 'em up a notch for these last few meets of the outdoor season."

The throwers were not to be left out of the scoring frenzy. Matt Farley '11 picked up a fourth consecutive victory in the hammer throw, unleashing a 47.32m monster. Rusty Cowher '12, whose name has been mentioned a lot as of late, took 1st in the discus and 2nd in the shot. His discus throw of 43.69m was an ECAC qualifier.

The biggest day, at least as far as personal bests are concerned, was from the mid-distance unit. Consider the 800. Brain Cole '11, won the race and ran a lifetime best of 1:53.83. Cole's performance was nothing short of dominant as he lead tape to tape in an almost even split. He was also less than one second off the NCAA provisonal mark of 1:53.00. Before the race, when asked how fast he planned to go out in the 1st lap, Cole remarked that, "I won't be leading. I'll just go out with the pack." So much for that strategy. Geoff Rodriguez '11 set an almost three second PR, busting out with a 1:55.79. Josephat Koima, freshman, ran a three plus second PR and Dan Franck '11 also set a lifetime best. In the 1500, Macklin Chaffee '09 put on a performance, to say the least. Running the 1st lap in 4:00 mile pace, Chaffee thundered to a 3:52.99, easily notching the NCAA provisonal mark. Jeff Perlis '10 finished behind Chafee with a very solid 3:59.39.

Also over the weekend, Isaac Nicholson '11 competed at the Tufts Invitational in the decathlon. Nicholson finished 2nd, scoring 5634 points, earning a ECAC qualifier. Referencing the performances of both Nicholson and three other female competitors from Williams, Head Coach Fletcher Brooks said, "I was pleased to have four out of four combined event athletes hit the DIII NE qualifying mark. The fact that three of the four showed NCAA potential, was icing on the cake."

Next week is the biggest team meet on the schedule for the Ephs, the NESCAC Championships. The Ephs are looking to claim the title once again next Saturday at Connecticut College.