The men's track team entered Boston University's Terrier Invitational to an unfamiliar field of competitors. In the place of NESCAC runners, the Bears were up against Division I opponents ?leviathans of the track hailing from, among other schools, Duke, Cornell, and even a few from the professional circuit. With Tufts as the sole in-league team, Bowdoin toed the starting line as a little David among an army of towering Goliaths.
The intensity of the competition proved inspiring for the Bears as many members of the team ran for personal bests. The meet was not scored and the schools were not ranked based on their results, but Bowdoin came away from the events with a great sense of accomplishment.
"Terriers was a great meet," said co-captain Nate Krah '08. "We had a lot of guys improve on their times and hit some pretty impressive qualifiers."
To make the season's fastest competition even faster, the runners competed on Boston University's state-of-the-art track, which is banked at either end to allow for smooth turns on the smaller indoor surface.
Set atop the incline in lane-six, Damon Hall-Jones '09 stood high above his competition in the 200-meter race he won just the week before. Despite his previous success, Hall-Jones was in an unfamiliar place as he looked out on a track that banked at each corner.
"The top lane on a banked track can make some runners cautious because it has a sharp drop off in the outside line," Head Coach Peter Slovenski said.
Throwing caution to the wind, Hall-Jones took advantage of the track's long downhills and ran to a personal best 22.67. In a mix of intelligence and pure guts he stepped up to the challenge of the race and, in the words of his coach, "ran it beautifully."
Senior Lamont White also ran for a personal record of 50.56 seconds in the 400-meter dash.
The longer distance events brought another highlight for the Bowdoin team as all four of the runners bested their personal records in the 5K run. The four, Krah, Tyler Lonsdale '08, Stan Berkow '11, and Ken Akiha '08, pushed themselves and each other to run smart but hard races in the many laps of the 5K.
"They set challenging paces for themselves," said Slovenski of his runners, "but then they also came through with faster finishes."
Bowdoin will host Tufts, Springfield, Colby, and MIT at Farley Field House on Saturday, but the Bears look forward to their return to Boston University on Feb. 29 for the Open New England Championships.
"BU has a very fast track that allows for fast times to be run, and we always look forward to going there," co-captain Brendan Egan '08 said.