The men's track team looks to continue its success this season at the Open New England Championships this Friday and Saturday.
This meet has highly competitive and difficult qualifying marks and will feature a high-powered field consisting of athletes who come from Division I, Division II, and Division III schools throughout the region.
After finishing fourth of 24 teams last weekend at the New England Division III Championships at MIT last Friday and Saturday, Bowdoin has reason to be confident about its performance heading into this weekend.
"The other captains and I could not be happier about the performance on Saturday. It really feels great to be the fourth-best Division-III team in New England," said senior tri-captain Mike Krohn. "There were a huge number of outstanding athletes at MIT, and the men's team certainly established itself as a great track team at the meet. We had over 10 personal bests in events Saturday, and that was a huge factor in the team coming in fourth."
Luke Fairbanks '09 gave the most noteworthy performance of the day, tossing a distance of 15.04 meters in shot put to capture the New England title in the event. The tri-captain will represent Bowdoin in both shot put and the weight throw at the Open New Englands.
"Luke has had a fantastic season," said Coach Peter Slovenski. "Becoming a New England champion and placing so well in a second event is an exceptional performance."
Seniors led the effort on the track by setting personal bests. Senior tri-captain Damon Hall-Jones scored in the 55-meter dash by running a time of 6.63, while Krohn and Ike Irby '09 each earned points in the 55-meter hurdles by running a 7.97 and 8.12 respectively.
"Mike, Ike, and Damon have given us an unusually strong combination of talent in the 55-meter dash and hurdles," said Slovenski. "They are the kind of clutch performers who have their best races in championship competition."
In other events, Thompson Ogilvie '10 finished fourth in a tightly contested mile run in 4:19.89. First year Brett Stein placed fifth in the 800-meter run by running a 1:57.99, another tight race in which there was a two-second difference between the top eight finishers.
Each runner will compete in the same event at the Open New Englands, intent on running their best on the big stage. Ogilvie will attempt to qualify for nationals in the mile run. In order to do so, he will need to run a 4:13; his seasonal best so far is 4:15.
Hall-Jones and Kyle Hebert '10 will also run for the Polar Bears in the 200-meter dash, while Irby and Riker Wikoff '12 will do so in the 500-meter dash.
For each athlete competing this weekend, this meet brings a deep sense of excitement and anticipation. They are eager to square off against opponents that they normally would not.
"For any runners that believe they could run in any division, this meet is what they look forward to all year, where they can go out and race head to head against athletes representing Division I schools," said Hebert. "You want to go out and try to beat up on the 'big boys'. We have some very talented athletes on our team, who have been training hard and are itching to step out onto the track with this higher level of competition so that they can really see where they stand and feel their hard work pay off."
Bowdoin will compete at the Open New England Championships this Friday and Saturday at Boston University.