Competing against eleven schools from Division I, II, and III, the men's track team participated in its inaugural meet of the season on Saturday at Northeastern. Coach Connie Putnam described the un-scored meet as a "warm up meet to shake off the rust and have a chance to see where everybody is."
The lack of scoring pressure in the match allowed the Jumbos to enter the weekend in a relaxed mood. Missing many of their important team members such as junior John McGuire, who is still sidelined with an ankle injury, and sophomores Brian Pitko and Greg Devine, out for various other reasons, the coach was pleased with the overall results.
"We only saw some of our potential, but I'm happy with where we are right now - we had a pretty successful day," Putnam said.
The highlight of the meet was senior Dave Patterson's attempt at breaking the school record in the 3000m run. The record of 8:31.44, set by Mark Hardie in 1973, was almost eclipsed by Patterson, who crossed the line at 8:32:79. His performance was one of the more impressive personal accomplishments of the weekend.
"It was interesting to see that school record scared to death, and it shows that he may break it sometime during the season," Putnam said of Patterson's run.
Others with strong personal performances were sophomore Emeka Linton and freshmen Chinua Thelwell. Thelwell ran in his first official 55M hurdles race in his college career. Adjusting to the three-inch height increase of college hurdles, he ran a solid race taking ninth place at 8.27. His time was strong enough to qualify him for the ECAC finals.
"Chinua ran a good race and he'll improve as he adjusts to the higher hurdles," Putnam said.
Linton also ran well, recording large improvements over last year's personal bests. In the 55M dash, Linton ran 6.89, which was a tenth of a second faster than his previous personal best of 6.99. He also improved in the 200m dash, improving to 23.77 surpassing his former record of 24.07.
"He was the best guy in both events," Putnam said.
Commenting on his progress over the off-season, Linton said "This was the first meet I felt strong and hopefully I'll continue to stay healthy and build off the first meet."
Along with Linton, Thelwell and Patterson, the rest of the Jumbos all had a strong weekend. The team had good early season times in all events with all members running close to mid-season form. Entering with a more balanced attack this season, each squad performed well.
In the jumping squad, freshmen Patrick Taylor and Eric Simmons showed that they will be a valuable asset to the team, helping the Jumbos fill a former weak spot. Taylor placed tenth in a large group in the long jump (20'00.25) and fourth in the triple jump (41'03.00).
The relay team also had a fairly good start. Despite placing ninth in the 4x400m event, Putnam was pleased with the way that his squad ran.
"We only had three of the four regular guys running, and those three guys ran well," Putnam commented.
Putnam is confident with the early signs from his team, although they will not participate in a scored meet until after winter break. Next weekend, they will host the Tufts Holiday Classic, another un-scored meet. Putnam and his team plan on using the next few weeks to keep the pressure off of his men and continue conditioning before the season enters full swing.
