Break and preseason have ended and the men's track team is heading into the heart of its season. On Saturday at 12:30 p.m., the men host the one and only home meet of the indoor track season, running against some of the toughest teams in New England.
The Bowdoin Invitational brings Tufts, Springfield, MIT and Colby to Bowdoin. This meet will serve as a good indicator as to where the men stand among D-III New England teams and will help prepare them for the Maine State Meet the following weekend.
The team is coming off some good performances over the past two weekends when it competed at Brandeis and Springfield. The men placed second at both meets in the face of some talented opposition. At Brandeis, Bowdoin dominated the field events, including first-place finishes from captain Colin Hay '10 in the triple jump, Chris Martin '12 in the high jump, Alex Lucyk '12 in the pole vault, and Nate Bingham '10 in the weight throw.
Senior Colman Hatton showed some outstanding endurance, running both the 5000-meter and 3000-meter, placing first and third respectively. The other Bowdoin athletes had some good performances all around, but eventually fell short to the University of Southern Maine, 238.5-191.
A week later, the team traveled to Springfield for another intense meet. Captain Kyle Hebert '10 showed some speed running the 200-meter in 23.04 seconds for second place in a tough field of sprinters. Matt Hillard '12 also had a good day, placing second in the mile with a time of 4:30.84 seconds. Lucyk added another second-place finish with an impressive vault of 3.89 meters and high jumpers Martin and Drew Zembruski '13 captured second and third, respectively.
However, the best performance of the day was in the 3000-meter. Led by captain Thompson Ogilvie '10, Bowdoin took the top three places with Hatton placing second and Alex Williams '12 following closely behind for third. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Bowdoin men did not have enough for first and fell short to Springfield, 129-104.
This weekend, the team has a chance to improve performances and gain momentum in preparation for the climactic state meet.
"Our boys have shown strength and resolve running through double and triple sessions over the past couple weeks while still performing well against some of the best competition in the Northeast," said Hebert.
However, he is eager to see the team's performance going forward.
"This weekend we're hosting MIT, Tufts, and Springfield," he said. "These teams are explosive and carry a lot of swagger but we'll see just how much of that swagger translates to speed on Saturday."