Gauthier, Capone lead men’s track team at Open New Englands
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Noah Gauthier ’08 |
Matt Capone ’07 |
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Sam Thomas ’07 |
Andrew Tibbetts ’07 |
HANOVER, N.H. — Bates senior Matt Capone (Auburn, Maine) ran a personal-best 49.75 seconds in the finals of the 400-meter dash Saturday at the all-division Open New England Track and Field Championships at Dartmouth. Capone finished seventh overall to help Bates to a tie for 18th place out of 37 scoring teams.
Bates scored 13 points at the meet, 11 of them by junior Noah Gauthier (Amherst, N.H.), who blew out the competition in the hammer throw Friday and finished eighth in the shot put on Saturday, at 49-02.25.
Gauthier’s final hammer throw was the best of his career, 192 feet and 1 inch, outdistancing runner-up Mike Bernardo of the University of Rhode Island by 8.5 feet. The throw put him at No. 3 on Bates’ all-time list, a mere 4.5 inches behind record holder Lucas Adams (192-5.5) in 1999 and 2.5 behind Wayne Pangburn in 1960.
Also competing for Bates on Saturday:
- The 4×400 relay, composed of Capone, senior Andrew Tibbetts (Dedham, Mass.), first-year Noah Glick (Center Tuftonboro, N.H.) and senior Sam Thomas (Richmond, Va.), placed 13th (3:22.93);
- Glick tied for 13th in the high jump (6-01.25);
- Junior Emmanuel Drabo (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) placed 16th in the triple jump (42-08.25);
- First-year Rich McNeil (Lawrence, Mass.) placed 11th in the discus throw (141-08), with Gauthier in 15th (137-05);
- Sophomore C.J. Murray (North Andover, Mass.) was 28th in the 1,500 meters (4:06.64);
- The 4×800 relay, composed of junior Andrew Percy (Woodbridge, Conn.), sophomore Mike Watson (Mansfield, Mass.), first-year Griffin Stabler (Keene, N.H.), and Murray, placed 11th 8:02.33).
Three seniors on the team — Capone, Thomas and Tibbetts — all registered personal records on Friday.
Capone won his heat in the 400-meter dash in a time of 49.84 seconds, qualifying him for Saturday’s final and moving him to No. 8 on Bates’ all-time performance list. Thomas ran a career-best time of 22.56 seconds in the 200. And Tibbetts ran a career-best time of 56.55 seconds in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
Bates competes at the ECAC Championships next weekend in Oneonta, N.Y.