Jumbos Battle for Second at NESCACs

(5/21/2012 2:20 PM) See more Photos     Full Results

This Saturday’s NESCAC Championships lived up to every bit of its billing. With five teams having an honest shot at the title, Bates College played host to one of the most hard fought NESCAC Championships in recent memory. After all 21 events were contested, each of the five favorites (Bowdoin, Bates, Middlebury, Williams, and Tufts) amassed over 100 points each, a NESCAC Championship first. Statistically speaking, this year’s meet was one of the most competitive ever.

Cold temperatures, driving wind, and stiff competition would not be enough to diminish the energy of this 2012 Jumbo squad. The team got off to a powerful start at 9am with the both the javelin and shot put. Freshman Brian Williamson continued his strong season as he bombed a new collegiate PR of 49-3, enough for 3rd overall. Backing him up was junior Curtis Yancy, who posted his own PR of 45-9.75, moving up from 11th to finish 5th overall.

Across the track, recent addition Matt Johnson moved up to 6th place with his final throw in the javelin. Additionally, junior Mike Blair tossed a PR in the javelin to grab the final scoring spot. Blair immediate ran across the infield, got in the blocks, and PR’d by nearly four tenths in the 110H. Regrettably, even with the PR, Blair finished 9th overall, narrowly missing finals.

Bates College jumped out to a quick lead as the SP (18) and JT (19) were their two highest scoring events. They had the rest of the conference looking up at them and were able to hold off the charging Jumbos for the duration of the day.

On the oval, Tyler Andrews, Andrew Shapero, and Joe Poupard braved high winds and frigid temps in the 10k. Andrews closed hard over the final 2 miles to finish 4th overall with his time of 31:41. Next up on the track, sophomore Dan Lange Vagle kept the momentum rolling and qualified for the finals of the 100m with a new PR of 11.08.

As the day’s finals got underway in the afternoon, not one Jumbo wanted to be the one to ease off the pressure. Junior All American Jeff Marvel ran an impressive 1500m, closing in 1:45 over the final 700m to outkick Bowdoin’s Coby Horowitz for the title. With the energy that Marvel just sparked, the duo of Ben Crastnopol and Graham Beutler ran impressive 400m to finish 4th and 5th overall from the unseeded section.

The impressive performances didn’t stop there. Dan Lange Vagle improved on his trials mark when he dipped under 11 seconds for the first time with his 3rd place time of 10.94 seconds. Back at the throws, senior captain Adam Aronson finished 2nd overall in the hammer throw for his first All NESCAC honors. He was backed by another scoring effort from Yancy, who finished 4th in the event.

Sadly, Bates College seemed to match each push that Tufts made and defended their lead brilliantly. Given the strong performances of Bates College couple with a few scuffles in the early afternoon for the Jumbos, the meet seemed to be slipping away…but only for a single moment.

Freshman Ptah Osayande spiked up for his first NESCAC championship and made a strong bid at taking down the title in the 400m hurdles. Running in lane 7, Osayande made up the stagger on defending champion Blyden from Williams before they cleared even the first hurdle. He maintained his lead over the final 360m; however, Bowdoin’s Sam Chick would nip Osayande by 0.10 at the line coming from an inside lane. Consider the team re-energized.

The spark created by the 400mH took flame as the PV and LJ competitions began to heat up. Junior Brad Nakanishi reclaimed his PV title with a clearance of 15-3. Additionally sophomores Trevor Rothaus and Dave Sutherland would add their own fourth- and eighth-place finishes in the event. Meanwhile, junior Gbola Ajayiwon his first NESCAC title as he leapt to a new PR of 23-4.75. Right on his heels were junior Mike Blair (3rd) and sophomore Andrew Osborne (5th). Between the three events, the Jumbos had quickly added 33.5 points to their total.

With 5 events remaining, Tufts had finally made up the early lead that the Bobcats had established. The Jumbos had a three-point lead, but were unaware of it due to the lack of posted results. The lead wouldn’t hold long as Bates junior David Pless led them to 16 points in the discus throw putting the Bobcats in the lead for good. The Jumbos had their own solid days in the discus, finishing 4th, 6th, and 8th overall.

Back on the track, Lange Vagle capped off an outstanding Saturday by grabbing another 3rd place with his 22.33 in the 200m. Additionally, Beutler doubled back from the 400m to finish 6th overall.

Gutsy 5ks from senior captain Scott McArthur, juniors Sam Haney and Kyle Marks, and sophomore Liam Cassidy, put the Jumbos 6 points behind the Bobcats going into the relays. The 4x4 of Vinnie Lee, Crastnopol, Beutler, and Lange Vagle would get around the track in a season best time of 3:24.02, finishing in 4th overall. Finally, the DMR of Bobby McShane, Larry Xia, Evan Cover, and Jeff Prescott would also post a 4th place showing with quality legs from all four runners.

In the end, it was an energizing day for the Jumbos. How could such an exhausting day prove to be so energizing? Because with only 5 points leaving after graduation, the Jumbos have already turned their sights on the 2013 championships. In the meantime, the Tufts squad will do everything in their power to post some stellar marks at next week’s DIII New England Championships. On to the next one.


Some interesting NESCAC Stats:

Over the past decade, these 2012 Championships were the…

Hardest to qualify for finals in 100m (11.27).
Hardest to qualify for finals in 110H (15.61).
Fastest time needed to score in 100m (11.05) – First time under 11.3
Fastest time needed to score in HH (15.63) – First time under 16.0
Fastest time needed to score in 10k (31:52) – First time under 32:00
Fastest time needed to score in steeple (9:36) – First time under 9:40
Slowest time needed to win 1500m (4:00) – First time over 4:00
Slowest time needed to win 400m (51.75) – First time over 50.0
Slowest time needed to score in 400m (52.69) – First time over 52.0
First time with 4+ athletes running sub 15:00 in 5k at Championships


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