The men's indoor track team will be traveling to Bates on Saturday to compete in the D-III New England Championships. This is the most prestigious meet of the season, with 25 teams in attendance.
Among this number are all of the NESCAC teams, along with other top colleges including MIT, Brandeis and Springfield. Last year, the team finished fourth in New England, and this year, Kyle Hebert '10, along with the rest of the team, is "looking to repeat a finish in the top five."
However, the team will need another meet of great performances to achieve this goal, seeded eighth in this meet earlier in the season. Coach Peter Slovenski thinks the men can top that.
"We've improved a lot in February," he said. "We're hoping to surprise a few teams and finish in the top five".
The team has improved a lot in February and a continuation of this trend from last Saturday's meet may be all it needs to achieve a top five finish.
The Boston University Valentine's day meet showcased this February improvement. Captain Thompson Ogilvie '10 ran a season best 4:15 mile, finishing second in his heat and closing in on the NCAA provisional time to qualify for the NCAA championships.
His brother Colin Ogilvie '12, along with Matt Hillard '12 also ran season and personal bests in the 1000-meters with times of 2:34 and 2:33 respectively.
In the 500-meters, replacing the more common 600-meters, Riker Wikoff '12 and Sam Chick '13 both won their heats, while Brett Stein '12 ran the fastest time of the three, but in a third heat.
Continuing the trend of winning heats was Stan Berkow, '11 in the 3000-meters with a time of 8:38, beating a few NESCAC rivals in the process. Will Stafstrom '12 also had a great race in the same event with a 9:10.
Moving away from the track, sophomore Alex Lucyk had another great meet with two close attempts at a personal best of 13'-6" in the pole vault. Even with all of these great performances, the standout of the meet was Colman Hatton '10 with his race in the 5000 meters.
"[He] ran another smart race," said Slovenski. "He was on 14:52 pace for almost three miles, and then he had such an incredible kick that he ran 14:45 and broke the school record".
On his way to this personal best and NCAA provisional qualifying time, he finished second in his heat, 10th overall.
Now all Bowdoin needs are a few more personal records and great performances to earn that desired finish this weekend at the New England Championships.