Jumbos stampede at championships

In a meet that went down to the wire, the men's track and field team notched a third place finish at the New England Div. III Championships at MIT on Saturday. The Jumbos finished with 87 points, just one point behind second place Williams, in an impressive display of competition.

"Saturday could be summed up in one word," senior tri-captain Greg Devine said. "Awesome. We had some guys PR, some guys improved a lot to take home some hardware."

The point total was the Jumbos' highest since the team hauled in 100 at Brandeis in 1996. MIT, who won with 120 points, began the day with 29 points thanks to claiming the top four spots in the pentathlon, held on Friday.

The majority of the team's points came on the track, with just four Jumbos competing in the MIT-dominated field events. Sophomore Nate Thompson (6.95 meters) came second in the long jump, gaining national provisional qualification. With an extra foot or so, he could be headed to the NCAA's.

In the pole vault, freshman Seth LaPierre (4.29 meters) finished third in a highly competitive field. LaPierre fell just short of matching The Coast Guard Acadmey's Jeff Filipowicz and Bates' Matt Ondra, who both cleared 4.44 meters, but still cleared a career-best height. Junior Adrian Clarke (4.14) and freshman Will Heitmann (3.99) also set career bests while finishing just out of the scoring.

The 55 meter hurdles saw the triumphant return of Devine following an injury that has limited his participation for the last couple weeks. Devine (7.56) did not disappoint, breaking fellow senior tri-captain Bryan Pitko's school record of 7.63 seconds. Pitko (7.69) finished second behind Devine, while Thompson (8.16) came in seventh. The trio combined for 20 points.

"Greg's time was third best in the nation," coach Connie Putnam said. "Bryan will have the chance to reclaim his record this weekend [at the All New Englands], which should create some interest."

Sophomore Nate Brigham ran a career best 15:02.65 in winning the 5000 meters by five seconds, while junior Peter Bromka (15:27.26) finished sixth. The race featured a greatly altered strategy from Brigham, an effort that clearly paid off.

"Coach and I had discussed it earlier in the week, and we decided the best thing to do was to take the lead later in the race rather than take the pace out early," Brigham said. "All season I have been the one to pace races early on, so this was a different race for me. Late in the race the opportunity was there, so I just capitalized on it. I ran smart, made great decisions that gave me a chance to win, and in the end I had a little more than the rest of the field."

The 400 and 600 meter dashes also featured strong Jumbo performances. Sophomore Ray Carre (50.50) finished second in the 400, while freshmen Shawn Hansberry (1:23.89) and Pat Mahoney (1:24.57) placed third and fifth respectively in the 600.

The 1500 was marked by perhaps the most dominating field ever to compete in the New England Div. III's. Six runners finished in under four minutes, led by Trinity senior Ryan Bak (3:47.84). Bak shaved nearly two seconds off the Div. III record of 3:49.68, set in 1985 by Brandeis' Mark Beeman. Jumbo senior tri-captain Adam Sharp (4:02.40) and sophomore Aaron Kaye (4:03.97) placed tenth and eleventh.

"It was a phenomenal race," Putnam said. "That might have been the best Div. III 1500 that I've seen at that meet. It shows the consistency of distance running in our conference."

In the end, the meet came down to the relay events. The Jumbos won the 4x400 (3:22.96) by nearly four seconds, anchored by Devine and supported by Mahoney, Hansberry and Carre. The 4x800 team placed eighth (8:04.76). The distance medley relay of Sharp, Kaye, and freshmen Trevor Williams and Kyle Doran raced to a third place finish thanks to Doran's late charge from 15 meters behind in the final lap.

"I was thrilled by it, he did exactly what I wanted and predicted," Putnam said. "He's a freshman, he's a small guy with big shoes to fill, and he did a great job of it. The whole team ran out of their minds all day. I felt I had our track guys in almost perfect condition, and was really impressed with the way they went out and competed. They never gave up or slowed down."

The team will continue its charge at the All New Englands this weekend at Boston University.