Men’s track team runner-up at NESCAC Championships
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Noah Gauthier ’08 |
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Rich McNeil ’10 |
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Matt Lopez ’08 |
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Bates men’s track and field team claimed the runner-up trophy Saturday at the NESCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The Bobcats placed third at the meet with 95 points, behind co-champions Tufts and Williams, who each scored 197.5 points.
“It was a great day for us,” said Bates head coach Al Fereshetian. “I kind of thought we’d score right around there, with an outside chance at 100 points. I thought Bowdoin would be right with us, but we stayed pretty well clear of them for third place.”
Bowdoin finished fourth with 62 points, and host Middlebury was fifth.
Bates’ throwers had a dominating day, sweeping the top three spots in the hammer throw and also showing well in the discus and shot put.
Bates junior Noah Gauthier (Amherst, N.H.) won the hammer throw at 185-10, followed by first-year Rich McNeil (Lawrence, Mass.) at 162-09 and junior Matt Lopez (Lexington, Mass.) in 152-02. Junior Graham Raymond (Westfield, Mass.) also scored three points in the event with a sixth-place 141-06.
Bates was also 1-4-8 in the shot put, with Gauthier winning at 50-08.75, McNeil in fourth at 45-01.50 and Lopez in eighth at 41-02.25. And the Bobcats went 3-5-8 in the discus throw, with McNeil coming in third at 153-09, Gauthier in fifth at 141-06 and Lopez eighth in 128-06.
Other outstanding performances for Bates included:
- Senior Sam Thomas (Richmond, Va.) taking second place in the 400-meter dash at 50.50 seconds, winning All-NESCAC laurels;
- Sophomore C.J. Murray (North Andover, Mass.) ran a personal-best 4:01.36 in the 1,500 meters, placing sixth, and later anchored the distance medley relay team to sixth place at 10:35.43, along with junior Andrew Percy (Woodbridge, Conn.), senior Sam Murphy (St. Paul, Minn.) and sophomore Mike Watson (Mansfield, Mass.);
- Senior Matt Capone (Auburn, Maine), who suffered a muscle strain in a recent practice, was held out of the 100 meters, but Capone finished fourth in the 200 meters at 22.12 seconds, then ran the fastest leg on Bates’ 4×400 relay team to third place at 3:24.76, along with senior Andrew Tibbetts (Dedham, Mass.), first-year Noah Glick (Center Tuftonboro, N.H.) and Thomas;
- Tibbetts came in fourth in the high jump at 6-01.25;
- Junior Emmanuel Drabo (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) came in sixth in the triple jump at 44-10.25.
Bates is at the New England Division III Championships next weekend at Springfield College.