Over the past few weeks, the Bowdoin men’s and women’s track teams met with an extraordinary series of successes, including senior Coby Horowitz winning the D-III national championship in the mile run.
Several student-athletes qualified for the Division III Track and Field Championship held the weekend of March 15-16 by Nebraska Wesleyan University in Omaha, Neb.
On the men’s team, Horowitz qualified for the mile and the 3,000-meter event, while Jacob Ellis ’16 qualified for the 800 meters. For the women, Addison Carvajal ’16, Katherine Harmon ’14 and Erin Silva ’15 qualified for the pentathlon, weight throw and pole vault, respectively.
The most impressive performance of the weekend came from Horowitz. His final mile time was 4:08.40, nearly a full two seconds faster than the second place finish of 4.10.18.
“Just setting the record this year made me want to win,” said Horowitz, whose four-minute mile set a D-III record on February 28. “I wanted to show that I could do more than set a record but also win the race,” he said.
To meet his goal, Horowitz said that he took it easy during prelims.
“[During prelims] everyone generally tries to go slow,” he explained.
He admitted “this year was unusually fast.”
During the final event, Horowitz didn’t hold back. He quickly gained the lead, completing his first lap in 60 seconds. His second lap was approximately 62 seconds, his third lap 64. By the middle of the race, he had established a five second lead over the rest of the pack.
“Generally the way championships go is that someone will get stuck out front, everyone else will follow them, and then the race is like the last 400,” explained Horowitz. “But this time I was so far out front that they were basically all racing for second.”
After a nervous first minute, Horowitz quickly found his stride.
“The first lap I was thinking, I need to be on pace. But after I fell off the pace I just kind of enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ve never really enjoyed it at nationals. Once I knew I can’t really screw this up it was a lot of fun…a big finale to my senior year.”
Ellis placed fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:52.53. Running out of steam, Ellis encountered difficulty during the last fifty meters. After expending much of his energy, Ellis found himself in the third lane and was unable to keep his position.
“[Ellis] ran as well as he could have,” said Horowitz. “He should be able to win [in the future], he’s gone twice and he’s already a sophomore. If you just keep racing eventually you’re going to win.”
For the women, Carvajal managed to beat her initial prelim position by one point, finishing 11th in the pentathlon. Harmon took 17th place in the weight throw, and Silva managed 11th in the pole vault.
After setting a meet record on March 7 at the ECAC Indoor Championship, Carvajal had a large boost of confidence going into the final championship.
Carvajal described the seven hour pentathlon as a “mentally and physically exhausting event. If you do poorly in one event, you have to shake it off and get ready for the next one,” she said in an email to the Orient. “You can never give up.”
Silva also felt ready for the final event of the season. By the time of the championships, she said, “I had hit my peak.”
Performing at her best, Silva was able to jump 12 feet, meeting her goal.
“As a minimum, I would have liked to get to the next height but that also would have been a [personal record],” she said.
“Winning ECACs was the first time I realized I wasn’t just going to nationals because I squeezed into the last spot,” said Carvajal. Instead, “I was going to nationals because I could compete for the top eight.”