Faller Qualifies for National Championships in 5k
(5/16/2008) Full ResultsSophomore Jesse Faller and senior captain David Sorensen ventured to Princeton, NJ for the Friday night distance events of the IC4A Championships. With a 11:59pm deadline to qualify for the national championships, the rest of the team headed west to Springfield College for the ECAC Championships. All had high hopes for great performances to wrap up the 2008 campaign.
Leading the way at IC4As, Faller equaled All American Nate Brigham's (class of 05) personal record with his 14:31.39 and qualified for the NCAA Championships. The top New England finisher at cross country nationals, Faller became the fastest 5k runner in NE as well. His teammate Sorensen also ran a national qualifying mark of 9:12.39, but failed to better his 9:10 mark from the NESCAC Championships. The pair of Jumbos will go into nationals ranked 11th and 6th respectively.
Looking for a last chance to PR this season or qualify for NCAA's, the bulk of the Jumbo squad ventured to Springfield for the ECAC Championships. The skeleton crew earned a 9th place finish with 28 points. Starting the meet off was the pair of decathletes Derek Engelking and Nate Scott. They were joined by freshman, pole vaulter Sam Read to kick the meet off right. Read breezed over 13-6 and followed it up with three great attempts at 14-0. Read showed great progress and promise over his freshmen year. Retooling himself as he unlearned some bad habits, Read showed himself as a future dominant vaulter in the region.
Both Engelking and Scott would take note from Read clocking in at respectful 11.81 and 11.57 respectively to get their decathlons started. Both would follow it up with four more great events for two impressive first days. One of the more impressive performances of the day would be Scotts HJ performance of 6-4.75 (1.95m). With the final field event of the day for the Jumbos, senior Joe Brown finished 7th with a throw of 165-11. Brown qualified for the NCAA Championships this spring and currently sits at 28th in the nation.
Rounding out the first day of competition at the ECAC meet would be a pair of Jumbo sprinters and a pair of steeplechasers putting together solid performances. Sophomores Nick Welch and Ryan Lena put up great times as Welch notched a season ending PR of 9:34.41 and a 7th place finish. Following suit, Ikenna Acholonu (110H) and Phil Rotella (100m) advanced to the finals in their respective events with times of
15.16 and 11.10.
The final day of the ECAC Championships would be greeted with clouds and rain however the cold, dreary day would not discourage the Jumbos from attacking their events. The pair of young 400m hurdlers, Trevor Donadt and Andrew Longley each posted solid late season performances grabbing 5th and 8th respectively. The two sophomores have proved themselves to be two of the best young athletes in the region this year as each earned All NESCAC and All DIII NE and All Open NE honors this year. It should be exciting to watch them continue to develop over the coming years.
Joining the two sophomores in clearing barriers, junior James Bradley took home the title in the high jump. His jump of 6-6.25 (1.99m) was a season best for Bradley, who had multiple great looks at 6-8.25. Ultimately his final attempt would be thwarted by a wet jumping surface due to the rains. Finishing up the field events for the Jumbos would be senior workhorse Jacob Fromer. Fromer had a breakout season for the Jumbos this year as he finally broke through a long standing plateau to earn All NESCAC honors in both the LJ and TJ. Fromer's 13.47 would fail to advance to the finals this weekend, but his year remained an enormous success as he PRed in almost every meet starting in December.
Full Results