New London, CT-- The Ephs came into Saturday, April 25th's NESCAC Championships knowing that past success doesn't guarantee future results. That the Ephs had won the last eight NESCAC Championships and 14 of the last 16 would be completely independent of their individual performances on the track at Connecticut College. So the team was hungry. The name on the front of the uniforms, "Williams", was still the same, but this was a different team with a different makeup, and a new head coach. With a little extra fire in their collective bellies, the Ephs responded to some early setbacks to win another NESCAC Championship, and their first under new head coach Fletcher Brooks.
The Ephs won the meet handily with 153.5 points, ahead of 2nd place Bates (116.5 points) and 3rd place Tufts (116 points). Bowdon and Amherst rounded out the top five, with 108 and 69 points, respectively.
Things did not necessarily go as expected for the Ephs from the get go. Middle-distance coach Mitchell Baker summarized as follows: "When you go into a championship meet, it never goes exactly as you draw it up. You come to expect the unexpected. When three of your top athletes, due to injury or otherwise, only score in a combined one event, it puts extra pressure on the rest of the team to step up. But the rest of the team has to be prepared to step up. And today they were prepared. The training has been good, the rest and recovery has been good, and as a result, the performances were solid. The team worked together to recognize a common goal, a NESCAC Championship, in spite of the difficulties."
The Ephs usually garner a number of points from the sprint and distance events, but this week it was the jumping unit's turn to step up. "We've been slowly putting the pieces together in practice," noted Tomas Kearney '12, himself a 4th place finisher in the high jump, "And today, with the favorable conditions, we we're able to recognize our potential in competition." Steve [Rubin ‘11] and Isaac [Nicholson ‘11] really summoned their training for some great performances. Indeed they did. Nicholson jumped to a personal best mark of 6' 3.25" in the high jump and earned 8 points for his 2nd place finish. Teammate Eric Jonash was just behind in 3rd. Rubin jumped 13.70m in the triple jump, good for a 3rd place finish, a lifetime best, and an ECAC qualifier.
Matt Farley '11 has been a model of consistency for the Ephs all season and Saturday was no exception. Farley authored a season best throw of 48.21m and earned 6 points for the team with his third place finish. The throwing arena was several hundred meters away from the track so it was difficult for runners to track the results of their throwing teammates. But it seemed as though every time Corey Watts '10, who was unofficially hand-scoring the meet, delivered results from the throwing arena the news was good for the Ephs. Like when Corey told of Rusty Cowher's 2nd place finish in the discus. Rusty's performance was especially key because his throw of 42.78m was slightly better than fellow frosh Candido Bosquet's mark of 42.51m. Bosquet threw for the Ephs closest competition, Bates.
Taylor Fitzgerald '11 came up big in the sprint events. Fitzgerald finished 2nd in the 200 and 1st in the 400, scoring 18 points for the Ephs. Pierre-Alexander Meloty-Kapella was also key, claiming a 3rd in the 100m and 5th in the 200m. Things didn't go exactly as planned in the 400m, where the Ephs were expected to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. The first shock came when the starter fired the gun twice in quick succession, signaling that Viktor Nagy '12 had started too soon and was disqualified (Nagy would come back with a vengeance in the 4 x 400m relay, which Williams one easily). Then Richard Fusco '12 "was too slow through the first 200m (his words) and ended up finishing 10th. Fusco, though, would also have a great leg in the 4 x 400.
After a scintillating performance last week, distance had a bit of an off-week. One of the most exciting races of the day, however, was when Macklin Chaffee '09 went head to head with indoor mile champion Peter Kosgei of Hamilton in the 1500. On this day, like at Indoor Nationals, Kosgei had the better kick. Chaffee finished 2nd in 3:54.94. The Ephs also received solid performances from Anthony Raduazo '12 and Corey Watts '10 in the 10000m race, as they ran 32:16 and 32:39, respectively. "It was a weird race," said Watts, who noted that, "We came through the 400 really slow, in 85 or something."
At the end of the day, the hardware once again belonged to the Ephs. The team-wide goal from the beginning of the season was a NESCAC Championship. On April 25th, by 5:00 P.M. the Ephs had realized their goal.
