The men's track and field team remembers the heartbreak from last spring's second place finish at the Maine State Meet. Despite an overall terrific performance by the entire team, it was still not enough to beat archrival Bates, who outscored Bowdoin by only two points to win the state title. With this memory still fresh in their minds, the Polar Bears say that they are determined and excited as ever to seize the state title at Bates on Saturday.
"The entire team is psyched for the Maine State Championship," said Thompson Ogilvie '10. "We haven't won the title in about six years, so we are very hungry."
"The state meet has a lot of tradition and close finishes," said Coach Peter Slovenski. "It's always very competitive."
The meet will feature the best track and field teams from Maine, and there is no doubt that Bowdoin will face a tough field. Bates is favored to repeat as state champions, and Bowdoin and the University of Southern Maine are a toss-up for second place. Although the Polar Bears dominated Bates at this past season's winter indoor state meet, they know that they cannot safely assume similar results at this weekend's outdoor meet.
"We have been preparing for this meet both physically and mentally. The competition will be tough for us from Bates because of their strength in the field events," said Ogilvie. "Even though we slaughtered the Bobcats during the indoor track season, in outdoor track Bates is a whole different animal—like a bobcat mixed with a 20-foot alligator. If we perform to our potential, there is no chance of the bob-igators defeating the Polar Bears."
With another strong showing against Division I opponents at the University of New Hampshire Wildcat Invitational last Saturday, Bowdoin showed just how much potential it has to win the win the state crown.
"We had good performances on the track, in the jumps, and in the throws," said Slovenski about the UNH meet. "We're entering the championship part of our schedule this weekend, and we think we're ready for everyone on the team to reach a personal best in the next two or three weeks."
On the track, Zach Winters '11 finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.82 seconds. Ogilvie was also impressive with second-place finishes in the 800-meter and 1500-meter runs.
Without a doubt, the most extraordinary performance of the day came from the 4 x 100-meter race. Since Kyle Hebert '10 was unable to run due to a hamstring strain late last Thursday, the Polar Bears had no choice but to put together a new lineup that had never run with one another before. Nonetheless, the relay team of Winters, Damon Hall-Jones '09, Tim Fuderich '10, and Chris Martin '12 overcame initial adversity during a nearly disastrous first baton exchange between Furderich and Winters to win the race in thrilling fashion with a time of 42.96 seconds.
In the field, Nick Ianetta '11 took first in the javelin throw with a toss of 52.85 meters. Hall-Jones capped off his extraordinary day and displayed great versatility by not only placing second in javelin, but also doing the same in the 200-meter dash.
"These pre-championship meets [UNH and Princeton] are good tune-ups for the chunk of the season that most of our athletes peak for," said Hall-Jones. "We've performed well against good competition and that's what we've come to expect on this team. I'm sure that the meet will be hard-fought."