Ajayi, Nakanishi, Wallis PR at Opens

(5/31/2012 7:19 AM) Full Results

For the second week in a row, the Jumbos headed across town to MIT, this time for the Open New England Championships. Ours is the only region of the country to offer an all-division championship meet. With nationals two weeks away, it’s a great opportunity to square off against strong competition.

Continuing off last week’s breakthrough race, freshman Francis Goins dipped under the 50-second mark once again, this week at 49.95. Though not a PR, it was the second healthy race Goins had run in as many weeks after battling a hamstring injury, as well as the second-fastest of his life.

Junior Ben Wallis also continued his march forward in the steeplechase, PRing for the second week in a row at 9:14.69. With another strong close over the final 1000m, Wallis moved up to fourth place overall, just off of rival Michael LeDuc of Conn College. Wallis will be targeting the 9:10 mark next weekend at the ECAC Championships.

Wrapping up competition on the track, the 4x400m relay just missed their season best in 3:22.01. The team of senior Ben Crastnopol, Goins, and sophomores Dan Lange-Vagle and Graham Beutler will likely compete in open events next week.

Off the oval, junior Brad Nakanishi set a big PR in pole vault with his clearance of 16-0.75 (4.90m) for third place overall. Bettering his previous best by 20 centimeters, this was Nakanishi’s first time over 16 feet and moves him into the high teens on the national list. Given the method for breaking ties used for entries to NCAAs, he’ll likely have to jump 4.91 next weekend to travel. Sophomore Trevor Rothaus backed him up with an outdoor PR of his own at 4.40m.

On the runway, junior Gbola Ajayi grabbed seventh place with his jump of 6.83m in the long. Two points wasn’t enough for Ajayi, so he came back on Saturday to add five more with a huge PR of 14.75m in the triple jump. He currently sits tenth on the national list and is almost sure to travel to Claremont in two weeks’ time.

Finally, the throwers wrapped up two days of solid competition as Junior Curtis Yancy set a new best in the discus at 46.23m.

At next weekend’s ECAC Championship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Jumbos will look for those last few seconds and inches for PRs and national qualifiers.


Full Results