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GREENCASTLE, Indiana--Tomas Kearney '12 earned All-American Honors in the triple jump after leaping 14.60m to earn fourth place. Kearney's impressive performance came one day after the Ephs finished 4th in the Distance Medley Relay in a season's best time of 10:04.99. Connor Kamm, coming back from two races on Friday (the mile prelims and a 1200m leg in the DMR) just missed All-American in the mile as he finished 9th in 4:17.28.
Rising the ranks throughout the season from one of the better New England Division III triple jumpers to a legitimate contender for National Champion in the event, Kearney's 4th place finish is a testament to a season's worth of hard work and resiliency. True, he did not match his 2nd place seeding, but no one could have forseen the huge performances of Chrys Jones of Centre College and James Simms of UW-Oshkosh. Even if Kearney had matched his season's best of 14.82m, he would have tied for 3rd.
Fatigue was definitely a factor for Connor Kamm '10 in the mile finals. But while his run of 4:17.28 was far from his season best of 4:11, it's important to remember that last year Kamm hardly even had a track season due to injury. This season, Kamm certainly filled the shoes left by multiple time All-American Macklin Chaffee, who graduated last year. After a tactically perfect prelims in which Kamm ran 4:13.55--just fast enough to make the final--Kamm was asked to run the 1200m leg of the DMR. He fought hard, especially considering he had run just two seconds off his lifetime best in the mile just hours before. Three races in two days is a tremendous workload for any athlete, let alone one who is coming off several seasons lost or diminished due to injury. Not acheiving All-American does nothing to bely the fact that Kamm was a true leader for the Ephs this year, running many clutch races in key championship meets.
Just one day before Kearney and Kamm battled national caliber competition, the Distance Medley Relay team took to the track in hopes of fighting for victory. Kamm led off for the Ephs but faded slightly in the last 200m of his leg before passing the baton to upstart freshman Jabulani Blyden. Blyden held position in the 400m leg before relinquishing the baton to Brian Cole '11 who past a man or two in the 800. With just Edgar Kosgey '10 left to run, the Ephs were well back of the leaders, likely in 9th of 10th place. Kosgey made a tremendous push, passing other teams seemingly at every turn. He kicked in with a pack of two other runners, just losing to one (Nate Stymiest of UW-Oskosh) but outkicking another (Jimmy Swanson of rival Amherst College). The Ephs 10:04.99 finish time was a season's best and just two seconds behind the winning team's time. The Ephs finished 4th.
The team also managed to finish 18th out of 65 teams on the strength of Kearney and the DMR team's performances. Another season of exhilirating indoor track & field is in the books. Next time we'll hear tales from San Diego as the Ephs kick off their outdoor season with a trip to "America's Finest City."
