Men’s track and field finishes sixth at New Englands
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Gauthier |
McNeil |
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Quinn |
Lopez |
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Drabo |
Miley |
MEDFORD, Mass. — Bates College finished sixth out of 25 scoring teams Saturday at the 2008 New England Division III Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships, with a number of outstanding performances leading to 50 team points and the Bobcats’ sixth consecutive top-six finish. Tufts won the meet with 118 points, followed by Williams (106), MIT (101), Coast Guard (70.5), Trinity (64) and Bates (50), with Southern Maine (35), Keene State (34), Bowdoin (28) and Springfield (24.5) rounding out the top 10 teams.
“It was an absolutely phenomenal day across the board for us,” said Bates interim head coach Matthew Capone ’07.
Senior captain Noah Gauthier (Amherst, N.H.) took first place in the 35-pound weight throw for the second straight year at 59’10.50″, with sophomore teammate Rich McNeil (Lawrence, Mass.) the runner-up at 56’10.00″ and senior Matthew Lopez (Lexington, Mass.) scoring three more points with his sixth-place throw of 52’08.75″. Gauthier also took third place in the shot put at 50’01.75″, while McNeil came in fifth at 47’04.25″.
Meanwhile, first-year sprinter Ryan Quinn (Watertown, Mass.) qualified for the finals in both the 55-meter and 200-meter dashes, recording personal records and finishing fifth in both events at and 22.93 seconds, respectively.
Other highlights for Bates on Saturday included senior captain Emmanuel Drabo (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) recording a career-best triple jump of 45’05.25″, good for sixth place in the event. And the 4×800 relay team of first-year Joseph Musso (Wallingford, Conn.), first-year Kevin McDonald (Stewart Manor, N.Y.), first-year Thomas Esponnette (Auburn, Maine) and junior Michael Watson (Mansfield, Mass.) placed 11th in 8:14.32.
In Friday’s pentathlon, Bates senior captain John Miley (Hanson, Mass.) finished second with 3,406 points. The performance was the second best in Miley’s career and the second best in Bobcat history as well, following his 3,472-point performance at the Bates Pentathlon in December 2007. He registered personal bests in both the 55-meter hurdles and the 1,000-meter run.
First-year Brett Epler (Wellesley, Mass.) placed ninth for Bates, just 39 points out of eighth place, and first-year Monthe Kofos (Marlborough, Mass.) was 14th.