Ephs Strong in Season Opener at Syracuse Invitational
Syracuse, NY-- While the temperature hovered in the single digits outside, the Ephs looked for an early season warm up at the Syracuse Welcome Back Invitational. The team was incomplete as several athletes elected not to compete, a heavy week of training preceded the meet, and many of the athletes had not competed in several months. Still, the Ephs had many strong individual performances Friday afternoon and a very strong overall team showing.
Highlights from the men's side include Macklin Chaffee '09 impressive victory in the men's 3K with a time of 8:37, a blistering last lap by Geoff Rodriguez '11 in the men's mile to finish second, and a dominating performance in the men's 500m as Taylor Fitzgerald '11, Alex Hoerman '09, Richard Fusco '12, and Joseph Buck '09, finished 1st through 4th respectively.
The Ephs started out the meet strongly as Chaffee and Jeff Perlis '10 placed first and second in the 3K race respectively. Both runners are All-Americans; Chaffee in track last season and Perlis in cross-country this season. Chaffee figures to make a splash in the mile this season but wanted to start the season by getting a longer race under his belt. "I felt very smooth throughout the race," commented Chaffee, who ran a 32 second 200 on the 13th of 15th laps.
Meanwhile, freshman Rusty Cowher '12 and Nate Newburg '09 turned in strong performances in the shot put, with Cowher throwing a strong 12.3 meters. Matt Farley '11 also performed well, placing 3rd in the weight throw.
In other field events, freshman Tomas Kearney was impressed in the triple jump, finishing second with a distance of 13.24 meters. Kearney also finished fourth in the long jump behind teammate Eric Jonash and in front of fellow Eph Steve Rubin.
Back on the track, Deividas "Lithium" Seferis '09 finished 2nd in the 200m race with a time of 22.66. As was previously mentioned, the Ephs also took the top four spots in the 500m race, and Geoff Rodriguez closed the mile with a 30 second lap to move from sixth to second in the final 200m.
