The men's track and field team traveled to Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts Saturday to compete against a variety of Division 3 schools. The meet, only the second team-scored meet Williams has competed in this season, was won by rival Amherst College with a score of 134 points, which edged second-place Oneonta (121.50 points) and Williams (120 points). Captain Anthony Raduazo said before the meet, "A few of our distance runners aren't racing Saturday, but we're still looking to win the meet as a team and gain some momentum as we approach championship season."
Jared Nowell started the meet off on a high note for the Ephs, finishing third in the 60 meter dash in a time of 7.25 seconds. He returned to grab fourth place in the 200 meter dash in 23.55 seconds, earning a total of eleven team points for Williams between the two races. The 400 meter race, an event head coach Fletcher Brooks has called "one of our strongest," proved his statement correct Saturday, as three Ephs finished in the top seven. This trio was led by senior Richard Fusco, who placed second in 50.78 seconds. He was followed through the tape by junior Jabulani Blyden in 51.82 seconds and freshman Emmanuel Daring in 52.67 seconds. Blyden, who competed in the 55 meter hurdles at the D3 National Championship meet last year, did not race in the 60 meter hurdles Saturday; freshman Laye Samoura still managed to score six points for Williams in the event, however, by placing third. In the 600 meter race, sophomore Nathaniel Sutton contributed to the team effort by snagging a point in virtue of his eighth place, 1:29.64 race.
In the second middle-distance race of the day, the 800 meter run, freshman Ben Schneider continued to impress by finishing fourth in 2:00.26, good for five team points. Later, the only distance runner for Williams on the day, Steve Mendoza, placed fifth in the 5000 meter race on Springfield's slow track in 16:08.30.
Edward Demarius, a sophomore jumper, turned in his best high jump effort of the season, jumping 1.86 meters, which was good for second place in the event and qualifies him for DIII New England's. Johnny Ray Hinojosa also finished well enough in the pole vault to qualify for DIII New England's by vaulting 4.30 meters, second in the event. The same is true of senior Tomas Kearney, who seems to be rounding into form with a 6.77 meter long jump effort and a 13.83 triple jump that won the event and barely missed qualifying him for the All-New England's meet. Senior Rusty Cowher won both the shot put (a throw of 14.26 meters) and the weight throw (17.56 meters), an event Rusty could place high in at the national level.
Besides the Springfield meet, head coach Fletcher Brooks, "excited about the new heptathlon event," traveled to Tufts University Friday with Chris Fogler for the two-day competition. After the first day of competition, Fogler was in second place with 2573 points, trailing only Nick Lebron's (Southern Connecticut State University) score of 2718. On Friday Fogler placed third in the long jump, second in the high jump, third in the shot put, and third in the 60 meter dash among all competitors. After day two, he finished where he had started that day, in second place with 4441 points, behind Lebron's 4946. In championship season, there is no qualifying score for the heptathlon; rather, meets accept either the top twelve or top thirteen scores entered in the event. This is the first year in recent history that Division 3 has adopted the heptathlon, rather than the pentathlon, as a sanctioned event. It will be an adjustment for Fogler, who will have to compete in two more events than during his freshman and sophomore years at Williams.
