Track's spring success continued at the NESCAC Championship last weekend at Bates, with the women placing fourth out of 10 teams and the men coming in fifth of 11. Seven Bowdoin women were named to the All-Conference Team, while 10 men received the same honor. The recognition is bestowed to athletes who finish in the top three in at least one event.
Elsa Millet '12 not only managed to win both the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run on the track, but on Tuesday, she won the NESCAC's Sabasteanski Award for the Most Outstanding Female Performer.
"The weather affected race after race all day and Elsa was the one runner I saw who looked like she was in harmony with the conditions," said Head Coach Peter Slovenski, in reference to the meet's rough winds and cold temperatures.
Thrower Katherine Harmon '14 reached an all-time high this meet: having set a new personal record in every meet of the year, she took third place in the hammer throw. In the discus, Anna Prohl '14, Harmon and Randi London '15 finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively.
"The event where we surpassed our expectations by the most was the woman's discus. We earned a lot more points than expected because of the great efforts of Anna, Katherine, and Randi," said Slovenski.
Other impressive results include senior Laura Peterson's third-place finish in both the long jump and the triple jump, and Anna Ackerman '12 breaking the school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase, as she has done in the past three meets.
On the men's side, the distance medley relay team of Matt Hillard '12, Coby Horowitz '14, Matt Gamache '13, and Colin Fong '12 won with a track-record time. Although Bowdoin had the lead at the end of every leg, Slovenski said that four or five teams would catch up heading into the backstretch because of the harsh winds. It wasn't until Horowitz's anchor leg of the race that Bowdoin managed to pull away from the pack for the win.
In the 1500 meters, Horowitz and Hillard were in the front pack for the whole race, and ended finishing second and third in a photo finish—the top four finishers completed the race within .63 seconds of each other.
Sam Chick '13 won the 400-meter hurdles, following his impressive victory in the same event the previous week.
"Sam had the fastest time before the NESCAC meet and withstood the efforts of some very fast runners to catch him," Slovenski said. "It's very difficult to hold a top seed in a competitive league like the NESCAC, and Sam did it."
Mason Moss '12 earned first place in the javelin throw, improving on his second-place finish in last year's competition.
Bowdoin competes in the New England D-IIIs tomorrow, and qualifying athletes will participate in the Open New England championship the following week.