The men’s track and field team will open their season on Saturday, December 8 with an early season meet against the University of Southern Maine, St. Joseph’s College of Maine, and Bates. The team looks to match its state championship season from a year ago despite the loss of what Coach Peter Slovenski called “one of the best track classes in college history.” 
The team will have to compensate for the loss of last year’s seniors, in particular  All-Americans Matt Hillard and Colin Fong, but will have the benefit of the largest team in Bowdoin’s history.
“Luckily, Bowdoin has a strong freshman class,” Slovenski said, “and hopefully the team can match its performances from last year.”
The team will run under the leadership of senior sprinters David Bean and Matt Gamache. Slovenski also mentioned the guiding role hurdler Sam Chick ’13 has taken this year. 
“We’ve had a terrific fall of training,” he said, “David, Matt, and Sam have been leading tough workouts so the team should be well-prepared for the big meets of the second semester.”
Andrew Gluesing ’13 will look to make an impact in the middle distances and Drew Zembruski ’13 will continue what the coach has called “an outstanding career” in the high jump. Slovenski also singled out Tyler Silver ’13 in the throwing events, and All-State, All-NESCAC, and All-New England Eddie Page ’13 in the pole vault, as lynchpins in their respective competitions. 
Slovenski noted his strong sprinters this season, particularly Kyle LeBlanc ’14 and Jarred Kennedy-Loving ’15.
“We’re really deep in the sprint event. Our sprint corps has a lot of speed and brains. They work hard, but they’re very intelligent about sprint training and sprint technique,” he said. “I think they will do very well in the championships.”
Getting to the February championships will require first years Nick Walker, Tom Rehnquist, and Cam Chisholm, among others, to adjust quickly to the college competition.
“When you lose such a great senior class,” Slovenski said, “it sometimes takes a few months for the new team members to acclimate to college competition. I think we’ll be a very good team once the freshmen get healthy.”