The men's track and field team wrapped up the season's final home meet with a fifth place finish out of 44 schools at the ECAC's on Saturday. In a tight finish, the Jumbos scored 41 points, just one point behind fourth place Bates (42) and three behind St. Lawrence (44). The College of New Jersey (98.5) was crowned champion ahead of second place Rensselear (55).
Senior tri-captain Bryan Pitko paid tribute to the team's performance throughout the season and the recent championship competition, while reflecting on the final home meet of his career
"I'm going to miss running on this track. It's been a great four years of memories, accomplishments, trials and triumphs," Pitko said. "Peaking for three weeks is very difficult, and I think we did a hell of a job considering how hard we've worked this season."
Pitko (7.87 seconds) and fellow senior tri-captain Greg Devine (7.77) finished fifth and third respectively in the 55 meter hurdles. The race was marred by a false start by Lincoln University's Pierre Chapman that was picked up by neither the starter nor the recall starter. Lincoln's Sinclair Ethaniel (7.70) won.
Senior tri-captain Adam Sharp (2:30.63) shaved nearly four seconds off his best time in the 1000, narrowly missing the school record of 2:29.32. He also lead the distance medley relay team (season-best 10:19.62) to a seventh place finish. Sharp was also recently named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team, honored along with nine other Jumbos.
"Sharp really gets the kudos for running a great race unseeded like that," coach Connie Putnam said. "As the meet progressed, the last couple of events they really started to go for it. Early on, it was not as good as we'd have liked, but everyone was pretty fatigued."
Sophomore long jumper Nate Thompson (6.89 meters) jumped his second-best distance of the season to finish third behind Rensselear's Derek McGough (7.02) and the College of New Jersey's Karim Cockrell (6.94).
"I'm consistently going over 22 feet, which is a really good feeling," Thompson said. "We gave it everything we had, but we peaked two weeks ago for the Div. III's, so everyone was a little tired."
The fatigue was not especially obvious on the track, however. The 3000 featured an exciting finish by two freshmen, Kyle Doran (8:44.85) and Matt Lacey (8.45.97). Both ran career best times, slashing ten seconds off their previous bests. Doran finished fifth, coming from the middle of the field with a strong kick in the final lap. His finish was much like that in the DMR at the Div. III's two weeks ago, when he charged to a third place finish. Lacy followed Doran to the line.
"I was just trying to kick it in at the end. It was only the second time I've run it, and it just felt really good," Doran said. "There's been a couple of hard meets in the past two weeks, and everyone tried their best."
Freshman Shawn Hansberry (1:06.26) finished second in the 500 dash, just 0.13 seconds behind Montclair State College's Paul Noel (1:06.13), while sophomore Nate Brigham (15:13.71) scored a point in the 5000 run, placing eighth.
"We gave it all we had, and I was very encouraged by the outcome," Putnam said. "There were some things that went against us, and we still came out with a pretty exceptional finish."
The 4x400 relay team of sophomore Ray Carre and freshmen Pat Mahoney, Trevor Williams and Hansberry ran seventh in 3:24.22, while in the 4x800 (8:03.50), Sharp teamed with fellow senior Jake Berman, sophomore Aaron Kaye and freshman Neil Orfield to finish tenth.
With the NCAA's as the last event of the indoor season this weekend, the meet all but wrapped up a highly successful season for men's track. The team has seen strong senior leadership as well as many impressive individual performances across the board, according to Putnam.
"I would be hard-pressed to pick out anything we could have done better," Putnam said. "I'm very proud of the team, the work ethic has been fantastic, and it's been a really great season. You can just look at the top ten lists to see the guys made a pretty sizeable assault on the records."
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