The men's track and field team began 2009 on a high note with a victory in a home meet on Saturday. With 81.5 points, Bowdoin defeated the University of Southern Maine, the defending state meet champion, and Brandeis, a team with a fast distance lineup, in impressive fashion.
The Bears scored a total of 81.5 points, over the Huskies, who scored 63.5, and the Owls, who scored 36.
Damon Hall-Jones '09 and Luke Fairbanks '09 led the way with a pair of wins each. Hall-Jones won two tightly contested races by claiming the 55-meter by .01 seconds and the 200-meter dash by .03 seconds. Off the track, Fairbanks convincingly won the weight throw and shot put competitions with throws of 14.80 meters and 14.31 meters, respectively.
"The seniors have given us great leadership this season," said Coach Peter Slovenski. "They scored 34 points. Ike Irby '09 and Mike Krohn '09 scored in three events."
Krohn had an exceptional day with three second places in the 200-meter race, 55-meter hurdles, and the pole vault.
The 600-meter was perhaps the most exciting race of the day. Alex Jeanty '11 led for 550 meters before Riker Wikoff '12, Irby and USM's Tim Even all closed in for a tight finish. The four runners finished within 1.7 seconds of each other with Even finishing in first, followed by Irby, Jeanty and Wikoff, respectively.
Unfazed by the grueling 600-meter race, Irby and Jeanty came back to help Bowdoin to a first-place finish in the 4 x 400-meter relay. Along with Kyle Hebert '10 and Zach Winters '11, the team ran a noteworthy 3:29.76 time.
In addition to the 4 x 400-meter relay squad, the Polar Bears got first-places finishes from Winters (400-meter run), Thompson Ogilvie '10 (one-mile run), and Chris Martin '12 (high jump).
Just the second meet of the season, this win comes after a second-place finish at a meet against Southern Maine and St. Joseph's College back on December 13, 2008.
After a strong showing this past weekend, there is much reason for the Bears to be excited for the rest of the season.
"This team did a lot of training during the vacation," said Slovenski. "It will be rewarding and fun for the athletes to improve through January and February because of the hard work they did in November and December."
The Polar Bears will travel down to Waltham, Mass. this coming Saturday and look to build upon their initial success at the Brandeis Invitational, where they finished first out of 11 at last year's meet.