First Year Stephen Simalchik breaks 25-year old NESCAC javelin mark and Williams record
More details, insights and quotes will be added when Ephs return to campus.
SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- The Williams College
men’s track & field team won the New England Small
College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship for the 20th time
in the 25-year history of the event on Saturday at Tufts
University’s Dussault Track.
The Ephs, who have won outright or shared the conference title for
10 straight years, scored 167.50 points to win the 2010 title. Host
Tufts placed second with 155.50 points, and Bates College scored
129 points for third place.
Williams won four events on their way to the title. Most
impressive was freshman Stephen Simalchik in the javelin throw,
with a 216’1” (65.86m) launch that shattered a 25-year
old conference record previously held by Trinity’s Richard
Hayber (63.73m in 1985).
Junior Brian Cole won an exciting 800 meter run by 0.02 with a
1:54.63 finish. Senior Connor Kamm earned another close win for the
Ephs in the 1,500, timing 3:54.63 to win by 0.22 of a second. Eph
sophomore Thomas Kearney took the triple jump with a best distance
of 47’0 ¾” (14.34m).
Bates College’s Richard McNeil was the only competitor to
win two events at the meet. He was first in the shot put with a
best heave of 49’7 ¼” (15.12m), and he also won
the hammer throw at 178’8” (54.45m).
Kamm's victory in the 1500m was all the more impressive because it was run on the heels of the 10000m race that he competed in several hours earlier. Kamm finished 5th in a very talented field which included eventual 3rd place finisher and teammate Corey Watts '10 and then had to quickly cool down, rest, recover, and then warm up and prepare for the 1500m. As you know, Kamm was able to gut out a victory in the 1500m, a race where the top five finishers were all within 1.8 seconds of one another. Kamm took the lead in that race with about 600m to go and then staved off numerous attacks in the final lap and a half from other runners to win.
In that 1500m race was Edgar Kosgey '10, another Eph who completed an impressive double. After finishing 4th in the 1500 in 3:56.31, Kosgey rallied to a 3rd place finish in the 5000m behind only All-Americans Daniel Murner of Amherst and Jesse Faller of Tufts.
At the beginning of the season Head Coach Fletcher Brooks talked about how, perhaps unlike year's past, this year's throws group would be able to carry teams and pick up crucial points in championship meets. This was perhaps most evident on Saturday. We know about Simalchek's amazing javelin throw. He also finished 4th in the hammer throw. But the Ephs were also crucially bolstered by Matt Farley '11 (6th in the hammer) and Rusty Cowher '12 (6th in the discus and 4th in the shot). Syvad Young '12 had perhaps his best meet of the season, finishing just one place out of scoring in two events, the shot and the discus. Williams was able to provide some resistance to the traditional Bates dominance of throwing events which helped key the championship victory.
Steve Rubin's '11 name seems only to appear in championship writeups, a testament to the fact that Rubin continues to step up for the most important meets. He did so again on Saturday with two season's best efforts in the triple and long jump, two events where he scored a combined 11 points. Rubin now has the All New Englands qualifier in the triple jump. Isaac Nicholson '11 was 2nd in the high jump (1.91m) and Kearney added a tied-for-sixth place finish in that even to go along with his spectacular triple jump.
Richard Fusco '12 and Jabulani Blyden '13 have been trading the crown of top Williams 400m runner back and forth throughout the season. At NESCAC's, it was Fusco's turn to reign supreme as he finished second in 49.68 to Blyden's fourth in 50.33. Fusco also picked up a 4th in the 200m running 22.79 as he continues to develop that short distance speed. Blyden answered by finishing 3rd in the 110m hurdles in 15.10; he has only the NCAA qualifier left to attain in that event. Blyden also ran a blistering fast 54.44 seconds in the 400m hurdles, which leaves him just .14 seconds of the NCAA provisional mark.
Next week is the Division III Championships, which will also be hosted at Tufts.
