The championship season is well underway and the men's track team is rising to the challenge. With the highly selective Open New England meet this Saturday at Boston University, training is over and the team is ready to perform.
The Open New England meet will be an opportunity for athletes to improve performances and drop their times. The banked track of Boston University and high level of competition create an ideal atmosphere for season's best performances.
However, merely qualifying for the meet represents an achievement in itself.
Some performances to watch will include senior Colman Hatton, who heads into the 5000-meters seeded No. 2 in New England, with a time of 14:45.04 seconds.
Sophomore standout Matt Hillard is seeded No. 10 in the 1000-meters and Senior Captain Thompson Ogilvie heads into the mile race with a No. 15 seed. Brett Stein '12 and captain Kyle Hebert '10 are also expected to have good performances in the 800- and 400-meters respectively.
The men are coming off a strong finish at the D-III New England Championships hosted at Bates College last weekend. Hebert continued his impressive season and placed third in both the 200- and 400-meters. Stein '10 picked up eighth place in the 600-meters and Ogilvie ran a solid mile, placing fifth overall.
Junior Stan Berkow also ran a good race with his fifth place finish in the 5000-meters, and fellow distance runner Hatton placed second with an outstanding 3000-meters. The men finished strong with two good relay teams. The distance medley relay began with Ogilvie dropping an impressive 1200-meters split and sophomore Riker Wikoff continuing the trend with a fast 400-meters. Ogilvie ran next, gaining a lead before passing the baton to sophomore Alex Williams, who ran a fantastic mile while alone in the lead to finish the race. From the slower heat, the team placed third overall. Following was the much awaited 4x800-meters team of Jordan Termine '10, Sam Frizell '12, Hillard and Stein. Together they ran a season best time of 7:56.96 seconds and captured second place; their relay team has a lot of potential heading into this weekend as well.
In the field events, senior Tim Fuderich placed fifth in the long jump and fourth among some strong triple jumpers. Altogether the men gathered 52 points, placing sixth among the top teams in D-III New England.
From here on out, the meets will get bigger and the competition will get fiercer, but the team seems ready to rise to the challenge. When wondering how to handle all the pressure, one can always look to Ogilvie for advice: "You just have to have fun with it," he said.