On the men’s side, the Sebasteanski Award as the Most Outstanding Male Performer was shared between Williams junior Seferis (Klaipeda, Lithuania) and Hamilton sophomore Peter Kosgei (Kapsabet, Kenya).
Women’s Coach of the Year honors went to Williams head coach Peter Farwell, who guided the Ephs to their eighth consecutive NESCAC title and 16th overall.
Day Two: Kondratjeva & Robie post "provo" times in 800m at Univ. of Richmond Invite
Day Two: Arons wins 200m -- Chaffee second in 800m on day 2 at Richmond Univ.
Day Two: Geary & Chaffee collect individual wins at Coastal Carolina's Shamrock Invite
Day Two: Ephs stronger on day two at Shamrock Invite; Philbrook 2nd in 5,000
Day Two: Chaffee All-American in Mile -- Ephs finished tied for 33rd at NCAA Championships
Day Two: Wild All-American in 800; 4X400 All-American -- Ephs tie for 9th at NCAA Championships
The Eph tracksters didn’t disappoint as they carried home victories left and right. The highlights of the
day were the two field house records set by Williams’ own Andrew Arons ’08 in both the 200- and 300-meter
dashes. Arons’ times of 35.78 in the 300, and 22.61 in the 200 took down the old records, ones that he had
his sights on heading into the meet.
Bolstered by strong performaces from senior Caroline Doctor, senior Alex Phillips and the 4x400 relay team,
the Ephs collected 21 of their 25 team points over the final three events. That fantastic finish allowed
Williams to place in the top 10 for the eighth consecutive season, their total giving them a tie for ninth place.
Ephwomen Have Solid Showing at ECACs (2008)
Cambridge, MA -- The Ephs showed great efforts at ECACS these past two days and performed
well against fierce competition at Harvard University. The Ephs were entered in events ranging
from short sprints to the mile, showing the depth of the women’s track and field program. Williams
finished 7th overall.
Ephmen Heads East for ECACs (2008)
Williams Track and Field traveled across the state today to compete at the ECAC Championships
at Harvard University. The Ephs, fielding a small men’s squad of only three individuals – all
seniors – and a relay team, still managed a twelfth-place finish against Division III
competition in the final race of the season before the NCAA championships next weekend.
Men's Track has Record-Setting Weekend at Division I New Englands (2008)
On Friday and Saturday, the Williams Track & Field team took a select squad of competitors
to the 40th annual Division I New England Regional Track & Field Championships, where the
team placed 14th out of 31 teams.
The biggest accomplishment of the meet came on Friday night when the Eph quartet of
senior Mack Brickley, senior Andrew Arons, sophomore Edgar Kosgey and junior Macklin
Chaffee won the Distance Medley Relay in a school record time of 9:53.57, beating the
old record of 9:56 set last indoor track season. The winning time for the Ephs is also
an automatic NCAA Div. III Championships qualifying time.
Ephs Shine at Div I New Englands (2008)
The Ephs posted outstanding times at Division I New Englands this Friday and Saturday,
proving that the team is right on pace for some fast times in the championship season.
Running against top Division I schools, Williams stayed competitive and turned in some
great times for the first major championship meet.
Ephwomen Achieve Hard Fought Second Place at Division III Championships (2008)
Northampton MA -- The division III championship is easily one of the most important meets
for the women of Williams College and all athletes were ready for fierce competition when
they arrived at the track this afternoon. However, both coaches and athletes were aware of
the fierce determination of rival Tufts to triumph over the women’s team which has won 10
of the past 16 indoor titles, including the last five consecutive titles.
Ephmen Fall Short at Div. 3s (2008)
The Men's Track and Field team traveled to Tufts this weekend to compete in the Division III
New England indoor track and field championships. The team had been gearing up all week for
the occasion, and ended up placing second - losing the championship for the first time in
five years. "This is a special meet for our team. The energy level is always high and the
competition is always fierce. It's the one meet all year when we forget about individual
performances and work together to fight for the team title," said senior captain Chris Beeler.
Ephmen ready for DIII Championships at Tufts Stampede (2008)
Today was the last chance for many Williams Track & Field athletes to try to qualify for the
Division III New England (DIIINE) Championships. Any runner, jumper or thrower who failed today
to meet the qualifying standards (unless he previously met the marks earlier in the season),
is done for the indoor season. That’s a fair amount of pressure. Luckily, Williams students
are used to pressure, and based on the performances at the Tufts Stampede invitational, nothing
fazed the Ephs as they achieved qualifying marks left and right.
Men's Track Garners Top Marks at Valentine Invitational (2008)
During the final day of competition at Boston University’s Valentine Invitational, members of
the Williams men’s Track & Field team went head-to-head against some of the best athletes in the
northeast. The meet, held at BU’s renowned banked track, featured both collegiate and professional
athletes in a long day of competition that didn’t finish until after 10 o’clock at night. The
success that the women’s track team experienced Saturday night carried over to the men’s team as
three NCAA provisional qualifying marks were hit.
Women's T&F take on top competition in Boston(2008)
At one of the premier track meets of the season, the Valentine Invitational - hosted by Boston
University, Williams athletes competed with the best the northeast has to offer both collegiately
and professionally.
In addition to the national-caliber competition, the Valentine Invitational provided the Williams
women with opportunity to race in high-pressure situations, much like they will during the upcoming
championship races as post-season competition approaches. By the looks of things, the Ephs are ready.
Ephwomen Dominate Cardinal Invitational (2008)
The Williams women had an outstanding day of competition Saturday in the Wesleyan Bacon
Field House at the Cardinal Invitational. "Outstanding" might not be the word to use in
describing the team's performance - "domination" might be more appropriate to label the
four first-place and five second-place finishes.
Ephmen Fly at Cardinal Invitational (2008)
On Saturday at the Wesleyan University Cardinal Invitational, a selection of Eph runners tried
their best to hit qualifying marks for the upcoming Division III Championships, or to improve
upon previous season bests and gain strength and experience for future competitions.
Ephwomen Perform Well at Dartmouth Invite (2008)
Women's Track and Field had a successful day at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic, posting solid
performances in many events throughout the day against some tough competition. Senior captain
Carrie Plitt had a strong showing in the sprints with a second place finish in the 60 meters
and took fourth in the 400. Sophomore Elise Johnson ran her first collegiate race ever in a
stunning time of 9.67 in the 60 meter hurdles qualifying for Division III New England's.
Junior Veronica Ivey and sophomore Emily Heaslip each ran fast 500 times after being
abroad for winter study. In the 800, senior Laura Walls took third followed by teammates
Lissy Robie and Heather Bemis, all in the top eight.
Ephmen Race at Dartmouth Indoor Classic (2008)
The Williams Track & Field team headed north to Hanover, New Hampshire, on Saturday to compete in the
2008 Dartmouth Indoor Classic, which served as a tune up for the larger championship meets in the
coming weeks. Though team scoring was not kept at the meet, the men’s team had a strong showing,
with solid performances all around.
Williams Men take 4th at Reebok Games (2008)
The Reebok meet is one of the Ephs' most highly anticipated competitions of the indoor season. Races
take place at the legendary Reggie Lewis track facility, which features a speedy banked track. Unlike
traditional track layouts, this oval curves up from lane one to compensate for the sharp turns of an
indoor 200-meter track. The track construction, combined with the electricity in the air from the
excited athletes, usually results in the first of the an athlete's fast times of the indoor season.
Ephwomen Finish 6th at Reebok Games (2008)
The Williams women’s track & field team headed to Boston on Friday evening to compete in the Reebok Boston
Indoor Games, hosted by Northeastern University. The Ephs were ready for the opportunity to run fast, paced
by top Division I competition and running on a banked track for the first time this season.
Women's Track and Field Look Solid at Home (2008)
Members of the women's track and field team built on their solid performances at Dartmouth as they hosted
their only home meet of the season on Saturday, competing against Union College and St. Rose. The meet was
characteristically low-key, giving athletes the opportunity to strengthen their jumping, running, and
throwing before the qualifying meets later in the season. Despite the laid-back nature of the event, many
athletes posted break-out performances, attaining New England qualifying marks and "surprising" coach Pete
Farwell, who had not expected such stellar performances from his athletes so early in the season.
Ephmen Tracksters Impress at Home (2008)
The only home indoor meet of the season saw the field house packed to capacity as competitors, coaches
and fans lined the track throughout the afternoon. Head coach Pete Farwell was pleased with the atmosphere
at the home meet, citing the high level of “spirit” among everyone in attendance.
Ephmen finish 3rd at Dartmouth Relays (2008)
On Sunday, January 13, the men’s indoor track & field team placed third at the 2008 Dartmouth Relays,
their first competition as a full squad. The two teams that beat Williams in competition over 18 scored
events were host Dartmouth College with 86.33 points, followed by runner-up Northeastern University
(67.33 points). Both schools field NCAA Division I track programs, while Williams competes in Division III.
The meet showed clearly that Williams can hold its own against foes outside their traditionally small-school division.
Strong finish allows women to place 9th at NCAA Championships (2007)
OSHKOSH, WI. — The 2007 NCAA Div. III Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet was a three-day affair.
For the Williams College women's team, the meet boiled down to the final three events of the final day.
Dave DeVaughn and Mike Davitian All-American; Ephmen Finish 32nd at NCAAs (2007)
OSHKOSH, WI. — Williams College senior Dave DeVaughan
hurled the discus 153' 10" on his second attempt and finished sixth to earn All-America honors.
Senior Mike Davitian
placed seventh in the finals of the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:56.24, thereby qualifying as an
All-American. Seniors Tyler Gray and Stephen Wills
each narrowly missed All-America honors with strong performances in the 800-meter run and steeplechase,
respectively. Williams finished 32nd with five points.
Stephen Wills, Colin Carroll qualify for NCAAs at Penn Relays
Ephwomen 4x400 posts fastest Div. III time at Penn Relays; Asher Provos in 5000
April 15, 2006
Women’s track and field captured numerous event titles and new qualifying marks at the George Davis Invitational held at UMass-Lowell yesterday. With temperatures in the seventies, the warmer weather allowed for especially big improvements in the jumps and throws. Undoubtedly, the day’s top performance came from Kristin Moss ’06, who jumped an incredible 19’0” in the long jump to shatter the school record and move her to second place on the Division III NCAA performance list.
Moss also claimed second in the high jump, leaping 5’4”. Katie Stack ’08 had an excellent performance in the javelin, throwing 32.47 meters for second place. The discus throw was dominated by Ephs, with Alex Phillips ’07 (136’6”), Abelee Esparza ’07 (125’11”), and co-captain Katie Krause ’06 (119’2”) taking the top three spots. Esparza went on to take the hammer throw title with her 148’4” toss, just shy of the provisional mark for NCAA’s. In the shot put, Phillips and Krause took second and third with throws of 41’5.25” and 40’7.5”. Caroline Doctor ’07 was third in the triple jump with a leap of 37’.75”.
In
the sprints, co-captain Katie Fulton ’06 looked to be in top form, taking home
both the 100 meter and 200 meter titles with her times of 12.37 and 25.28
seconds. Fulton also anchored the Ephs’ second place 4x100 meter relay team,
working hard in the final meters to edge past Tufts’ anchor runner. Maddie
Outman ’08, Moss, and Lindsay Millert ’09 also ran legs of the 4x100 relay.
Katie Howard ’07 ran very well in the 400 meters, beating her seed time to take
first place in a time of 58.05 seconds. In the 800 meter run, Veronica Ivey ’08
posted a new personal record of 2:17.36 to take second place, while Heather
Bemis ’09 was fifth in a time of 2:21. The 4x400 meter team of Bemis, Ivey,
Carrie Plitt ’08, and Fulton ran 4:01.11 for second place, just one second
behind Tufts’ team. In the 400 meter hurdles, Robin Kuntz ’09 ran a half-second
personal record of 69.44 seconds to earn seventh place.
Leading the distance runner contingent was Mallory Harlin ’08, who ran an excellent 3000 meters in 10:02 for second place, only a second off of her personal best. Tufts’ Catherine Beck caught Harlin in just the final 100 meters before the finish. In the 1500 meter run, Rachel Asher ’09 posted yet another personal record of 4:48.38 for second place. Teammate Laura Ellison ’07 also raced well, running 4:58.87 to qualify for Division III New Englands. Liz Gleason ’08, who is coming off of a minor injury after earning All-American honors in the Indoor 5000 meters, took second in the same event at Lowell. Gleason is very excited to be training and racing again and will most certainly continue to improve throughout the season.
Next week the Ephs will take on rivals Amherst and Wesleyan at the annual Little Three Championships, held at Wesleyan this year. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9540
Ephmen Compete at George Davis InvitationalApril 15, 2006
The men’s track and field team traveled to UMass-Lowell on Saturday to compete in the George Davis Invitational, a competitive meet where some hoped to post solid marks and others simply wanted to get in a good workout. The meet was not scored by team, but the Ephmen managed to capture four event titles and several runner-up finishes. The field events shined most brightly, with Branden Mirach ’07 posting a huge personal best in the long jump and Dave DeVaughn ’07 taking home the discus title. In addition, Dan Austin ’06 traveled to California to compete in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational, throwing the discus with some of the top athletes in the country.
The day started off on the track with the 3000-meter steeplechase, where the Ephs were led by Grant Burgess’08 fourth place finish. Burgess’ smooth hurdling form, especially over the water jumps, produced a new personal best time of 9:59 that he will look to drop even further in the coming weeks. Another Eph hurdler, Jamie Kingsbury ’06, placed third in the 400-meter intermediate barrier event, clocking a strong 59.02.
Several
members of the Eph distance and mid-distance squads chose to take the weekend
off from competition, but those who traveled to Lowell came ready to compete
hard. Chris Beeler ’08, Tyler Gray ’07, and Bill Ference ’07 swept the top three
places in the 800-meter run in that order, with Beeler taking the top spot in
1:55.9 and the others following right behind. In the 1500, Macklin Chaffee ’09
led the way for the Ephs, finishing sixth overall in 4:04.
For the sprinters, Andrew Arons ’08 paced the group with his second place finish in the 200-meter dash, stopping the clock at 22.67 seconds. He also came back to place seventh in the open 400-meter dash, and run a leg on the victorious 4x400-meter relay squad. George Rodriguez ’06, also a member of the winning relay team, had earlier placed sixth in the open 400-meter dash.
Andrew DeSalvo ’08 kicked off the day for the Eph throwers, placing sixth in the javelin with a throw of 47.16 meters, and coming back later on to claim second in the shot put with a toss of 46’ 8”.
The Eph discus throwers, however, delivered the top performances of the afternoon, despite competing on opposite sides of the country. DeVaughn captured the event title at UMass-Lowell, posting a strong mark of 150’ 7”, while Austin placed sixth against an international field in California with a launch of 194’ 11”. The mark improves on his previous DIII-leading performance and places him almost five meters ahead of his next competitor.
The biggest personal best of the day, however, came from Mirach in his long jump victory. The junior, who has previously never qualified for the NCAA championships, launched himself to third place on the DIII performance list with a leap of 23’ 7”. The jump increases his personal best by a whole foot, a huge breakthrough for already one of the top jumpers in New England. In addition to this mark, he also placed second in the triple jump.
Although not everyone had their best afternoon on the track, the Ephmen got in another solid competition and picked up several outstanding performances along the way. Championship season will commence next weekend with the Little Three meet, hosted by Wesleyan University, where the Ephmen will look to defend their title.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9541
Williams Relays ResultsApril 8, 2006
Women’s track and field endured temperatures in the twenties and windy weather during their only outdoor home meet, the Williams Relays, yesterday. Despite the less than ideal conditions, the team pulled through with many good performances across the event groups. This success was due in part to the impressive turnout of supportive alumnae and family, who brought their great spirit to the track. Many alumnae even tied on their spikes to contest some events at the meet.
Leading the strong field team contingent was Caroline Doctor ’07, who won both the long and triple jump events. Doctor leapt 17’1.5” in the long jump and 36’.75” in the triple jump, saying afterward “I guess it was pretty good for the cold weather.” Teammate Kristin Moss ’06 took second in the triple jump, while alumna Joyia Chadwick ’05 (last year’s NCAA Heptathlon Champion) took third place in the long jump. Moss also jumped to second in the high jump with her very solid mark of 5’4”. In the discus throw, Williams athletes swept all but one of the top six spots, with alumna Anna Swisher ’05 coming out on top. Finishing less than a foot behind Swisher was Anna Morrison ’07 with her 139’1” throw. Alex Phillips ’07, Abelee Esparza ’07, and co-captain Katie Krause ’06 took the third, fifth, and sixth spots, respectively.
School
record-holder and NCAA shot put champion Healy Thompson ’03 returned to take
victory in the shot put, while Krause took second with her 39’2.25” toss.
Phillips finished fourth, and multi-eventer Lindsay Millert ’09 took sixth. In
the hammer throw, Esparza took second with her 141’5” toss, while Phillips was
third. Katie Stack ’08 was seventh in the javelin throw, but is hoping for
warmer weather and an even better performance next weekend.
In the sprints, co-captain Katie Fulton ’06
claimed victory in the 100 meter dash in a time of 12.55 seconds. Carrie Plitt
’08 took first in the 200 meter dash with a time of 26.03, but she considered
her time “slow,” partly due to the cold weather. The sprinters also won three
relays: the 4x100 meter, 4x200 meter, and sprint medley. Plitt, Millert,
Veronica Ivey ’08, and Fulton teamed up for the 4x100 win, while Katie Howard
’07, Plitt, Ivey, and Fulton contributed to the 4x200 meter victory. Running the
legs of the sprint medley relay were Fulton, Plitt, Heather Bemis ’09, and
Howard. In the open 400 meters, Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 took the sixth spot in
63.67. Robin Kuntz ’09 was sixth in the 400 meter hurdles in a time of 70.15
seconds.
Many of Williams’ distance runners were placed in the 4x1600 meter and 4x800 meter relays as a welcome respite from their regular open events. The 4x1600 team of Lissy Robie ’08, Mary Feeley ’09, Julie McNamara ’09, and co-captain Caroline Cretti ’06 beat Middlebury by eight seconds for first place in 21:46, while Williams’ B and C teams took third and fifth. In the 4x800, however, Middlebury took the top spot, while Williams’ three teams swept second through fourth.
Cretti paced Mallory Harlin ’08 in the 5000 meters, and they finished second and third in respective times of 17:23 and 17:27. “It was really nice being able to run with Caroline for most of the race,” said Harlin afterward. In the 1500 meters, Rachel Asher ’09 took fourth in a competitive field with her time of 4:52. Not too far behind were Ryan Jane Jacoby ’09, Heather Bemis ’09, and Katie Howard ’07 who took the seventh through ninth spots. In the open 800 meters, Veronica Ivey ’08 ran 2:19.88 for second place. Braving the cold water for her debut in the steeplechase, Liz Bacon ’09 ran well to take sixth place in the event. “It [the steeplechase] was definitely painful, but I liked it enough to run it again,” said Bacon after her race.
Next week the Ephs will head to UMass Lowell for the Lowell Invitational, before traveling to Wesleyan for the Little Three Championships the following week. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9515
Williams Relays ResultsApril 8, 2006
The men’s track and field team hosted fourteen teams on Saturday for the Williams Relays, their only home meet of the year. With more schools participating than in previous years, the men enjoyed a long day of competition on a cold and windy April afternoon. Although the meet was not scored by team, and the weather put a damper on some individual performances, the Ephmen still opened up their New England season with solid efforts all around.
The day began on the track with an attempt to capture the school record in the 4xMile relay, with a four-man squad of Bill Ference ’07, Macklin Chaffee ’09, Sean Hyland ’07, and Mike Davitian ’07. Ference quickly learned how tough it would be to run through the blustery conditions all alone as he attacked the first leg of the relay. The trend continued for the first three legs as the Ephs charged out hard on record pace but then fell off on the last few laps of their respective four-lap legs. Davitian provided a strong anchor leg of 4:19, bringing home the event victory in 17:54 but short of the record. The Ephmen also fielded two other teams that finished fourth and fifth in the relay.
The
field events also kicked off at 11 AM, with the men’s long jump first on the
runway. Branden Mirach ’07 captured the title for the Ephs with a leap of 22’
1.5”, outdistancing all other competitors by nearly half a meter. Mirach also
took home the triple jump title with a mark of 44’ 4”, while David Kessel ’08
placed third in the event with a mark of 40’ 1.25”.
In the throwing sector, Dan Austin ’06 took home first place in the shot with a put of 51’ 4.5” while Andrew DeSalvo ’08 placed third overall with his put of 45’ 5.25”. DeSalvo also placed ninth in the javelin throw.
Next
on the track was the 4x200 meter relay, comprised of Andrew Arons ’08, Drew Raab
’06, Deividas Seferis ’09, and John Symanski ’06. The squad took home the
victory in a time of 1:19. The quick sprint relay was followed by the 5000-meter
run, where the Ephs decided to revise their goals and follow a fairly
conservative pace in light of the windy conditions. Andy Stevenson ’07 and
Brendan Christian ’09 sat in the lead pack for the first mile, hung on for the
second, and finished strong to place second and fourth overall in times of 15:34
and 15:42, respectively.
Soon afterwards came another sprint relay, the 4x100, and another event title for the Ephmen. With jumper Mirach replacing Raab on the squad, and all three other members remaining the same, the Ephs sped to a 42.23 clocking to distance the rest of the field. Raab and Seferis also placed second and third in the open 200-meter dash.
The next three events were the 1500-meter run, the 400-meter dash, and the 100-meter dash. First year Ben Swimm placed fifth in the longer event, while his classmate Stew Buck did the same in the one-lapper. Symanski and Arons came back from the earlier relay efforts to take the titles in the 400 and 100, with Arons capturing the shorter event. George Rodriguez ’06 placed third in the 800-meter run.
Another Eph that had a breakthrough performance was Matt Desir ’08 in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. A relative newcomer to the barriers, he clocked a 57.92 to place fifth overall in the grueling event.
In the final field event of the day Austin took home the discus throw title, with Dave DeVaughn ’07 placing sixth. Markus Burns ’06 grabbed another event victory for the Ephmen in the high jump, clearing 6’ 4” for first place.
The day concluded with another relay record attempt, this time the 4x800. Again with difficult conditions, and running alone the entire way, the squad of Tyler Gray ’07, Chris Beeler ’08, Davitian, and Ference clocked a solid 7:49, just one second shy of the all-time outdoor mark.
Next weekend the Ephmen will travel to UMass-Lowell for what should be a competitive invitational meet, and are beginning to gear up for the last few weeks of the season where they will defend their NESCAC and Div. III New England titles. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9516
Ephs Win 11 Individual and Two Relays at Point Loma NazareneApril 1, 2006
SAN DIEGO, CA – The Williams men's and women'
track and field teams closed out their Spring Break trip competing in an 8-team
event hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University.
In the men's competition the Ephs came out on top amassing 418 points. Brendan Mirach won both the long (21' 6") and triple jump (45' 7.25"), Andrew Arons won the 100m (11.0), Brendan Christian won the 10,000m (32:33) and Dan Austin won the discus (193' 4"). The Ephs also took first in the 4 X 100 relay, but no names were listed.
In the women's competition the Ephs placed fourth with 322 points as Azuza Pacific University won with 377 points. Caroline Doctor won both the long (17' 9.25") and triple jump (37' 5.75"), Caroline Cretti took the 1,500m (4:41.32), Katie Fulton won the 200m (24.85) and Lauren Philbrook captured the 10,000m in 40:36. The Eph 4 X 100 relay team took top honors as well, but no names were listed.
The Ephs will next see action next Saturday at 11:00 a.m. when they host the Williams Relays in their only home appearance of the spring season.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9493
Ephs Win a Combined 14 Events at Point Loma InvitationalMarch 25, 2006
SAN DIEGO, CA – Competing in the 18-team 2006
Point Loma Invitational against teams from NCAA Div, 1, 2 and 3 and NAIA schools
Ralph White’s Williams men’s and women’s track teams were able to come away with
11 individual first place finishes and three relay titles. The Eph men won six
individual events and the women won five, while the women won two relays and the
men won one. The event was non-scoring.
Caroline Doctor won two events for the women and Dan Austin was victorious twice for the men. Doctor won the long jump with a leap of 5.52 m (18’ 1.5”) and took first in the triple jump with a 11.38m (37’ 4”) effort. Austin won the shot put 15.96m (52’ 4.5”) and the discus 56.91m (186’ 8”).
The highlight of the day for the Ephs though was Caroline Cretti setting a meet record in the 5,000m when she finished in a time of 17:07.37. Lissy Robie crossed the line first in the 1,500m with a time of 4:38.73 and Katie Krause took top honors in the shot put with a toss of 12.68m (41’ 7.25”). Both the 4X100 (48.85) and the 4X400 (3:56.10) Eph relays were victorious as well, but the names were not listed on the results.
Mike Davitian posted a time of 3:57.08 to capture the 1,500 and Neal Holschulte was the winner of the 5,000m in 14:40. The Ephs won both the long and triple jumps with Brandon Mirach claiming the long jump (6.74m = 22’ 1.5”) and David Kessel topping the field in the triple (12.73m = 41’ 9.25”). The Eph 4X100 relay came in first with a time of 42.09, but names were not listed.
The Ephs will compete at Point Loma again next Saturday before returning to campus on April 2nd.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9461
Ephs 2nd of Seven at Occidental CollegeMarch 19, 2006
LOS ANGELES, CA – Ralph White’s Williams men’s
and women’s track teams opened their outdoor track seasons exactly one week
after competing in the NCAA Indoor Championships and both teams finished second
in a field of seven at the Ben Culley Homecoming Meet at Occidental College.
White held out many of his top performers this weekend give them rest and to give the younger Ephs a chance to compete.
The Ephs finished second to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) in both meets. CMS out pointed the Eph women 131 to 96.5 and out scored the Eph men 189 to 103.
In the men’s meet senior captain Dan Austin won two events and the Ephs captured six individual events and one relay title on the day. Five of the seven Eph wins came in field events.
Austin took the shot put with a toss of 15.25m and he won the discus with a heave of 54.39m. Austin is the defending NCAA Div. 3 champion and record holder in the discus. Brandon Mirach took first in the triple jump with a14.22m effort. Joe Song came out on top in the long jump (6.60m) and senior Markus Burns won the high jump (1.93m).
Junior Sean Hyland was the lone Eph to claim an individual title on the track winning the 3,000 in 8:55.77. The Eph 4 X 100 relay of Andrew Arons, Alex Hoerner, John Symanski and Brandon Mirach won in a time of 42.56.
Next up for the Ephs is the Point Loma Invitational in San Diego on Saturday.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9435
Men Finish 20th at NCAA'sMarch 11, 2006
The men's track and field team collected nine points total over two days of competition at the 2006 Div. III NCAA Indoor Championships to finish tied for 20th. Several Ephmen earned their first ever All-American certificate, and the weekend ended with eight athletes in total earning this distinction.
Dan Austin '06 kicked off Saturday's action in the shot put, however the 8th place finisher in the weight throw failed to make it out of his flight. The senior had a best throw of 51' 1.5".
In the 800-meter run final Tyler Gray '07 and Chris Beeler '08 both earned their first AA certificates, finishing in seventh and eighth place respectively.
Next on the track was Neal Holtschulte '06, holder of one of the top times in the 5000-meter run. Unfortunately, the 2005 Div. III NCAA Cross Country champion has been battling sickness for the past few weeks. Despite his limited training, the senior still managed to earn yet another AA certificate, finishing 8th in a time of 14:48.
The men's distance medley relay squad of Bill Ference '07, George Rodriguez '06, Chris Beeler '08, and Mike Davitian '07 finished in seventh place in a tight finish. Ference and Davitian both earned their first AA certificates, and the squad clocked a total time of 10:14.07.
As usual, the 1600-meter relay wrapped up the competition, with the squad of Deividas Seferis '09, Tyler Gray '07, John Symanski '06, and Alex Hoerman '09 placing seventh overall in a time of 3:20.55. The two first years earned the first of what will hopefully be many AA certificates.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9417
Gray & White Collect New England HonorsMarch 10, 2006
Ephs' Tyler Gray and Ralph White Garner USTFCCC New England Honors
It's sometimes said that the world is black and white, but at Williams it is more Gray and White. The U.S. Track & Field Cross-Country Coaches (USTFCCC) have named Williams junior middle distance standout Tyler Gray (Bedford, MA) the New England Div. 3 Indoor Male Track Athlete of the Year. Gray won the 600-meter run at the New England Division 3 Championships and clocked 1:52.79 in the 800, making him the fourth seed at this weekend’s indoor NCAA championships.
Williams head coach Ralph White was named the Men's New England Region coach of the year for leading his Ephs to a third consecutive New England Championship.
Ten of White's athletes qualified for the NCAA Division 3 championship meet this weekend at St. Olaf College (MN), where the Ephs will be shooting for a top-10 finish.
White Also Named Women's New England Coach of the Year
The USTFCCC also named White the Women's New England Region Coach of the Year for leading the Ephs to a fourth consecutive New England Div. 3 title and a third place finish at the New England Div. 1 championships.
13 of White's Eph women qualified for the NCAA Div. 3 championships this weekend at St. Olaf College (MN), however one will not compete due to injury. The Ephs are gunning for a top five finish.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9405
Ephs 2nd at NCAAs; Cretti Takes First National TitleMarch 11, 2006
Women's track and field performed brilliantly to capture the second place trophy at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships held at St. Olaf College in Minnesota this weekend. The Ephs were third in 2003 and fourth in 2005; this is the highest team placing in recent memory.
Leading the way was co-captain Caroline Cretti '06, who won this evening's 5000 meter run by over ten seconds and broke her own school record for the event with a time of 16:44. An 8-time All-American, Cretti was second in last year's race and third in 2003; this is her first national title. Teammates Liz Gleason '08 and Mallory Harlin '08 also pulled out big performances in the 5000 meters. Gleason ran a personal best of 17:09 to beat top-seeded Ellen Davis of Wesleyan and take third place points, while Harlin ran a solid 17:15 for sixth place.
Kristin Moss '06 leaped to third place with a mark of 5'6.5" in the High Jump, her best-ever placing at nationals. Moss was eighth in the event in 2003 and seventh in 2004. Caroline Doctor '07 brought home yet another All-American certificate in the Triple Jump with her fifth place mark of 37'9.5". Doctor was sixth in the same event at last year's NCAA meet. Co-captain Katie Krause competed in the Shot Put, throwing 42'2" for 12th place.
Lissy Robie '08 contested the 800 meter finals today, coming away with seventh place and All-American honors for her 2:16.34. Robie wrapped up her first nationals experience with a solid 1200 leg in the Distance Medley Relay. Co-captain Katie Fulton '06 took the baton for the 400 meter leg, Katie Howard '07 (who just missed the open 800 finals in yesterday's preliminary heats) ran the 800 meter leg, and Cretti, coming back on only a 15 minute rest after her win in the 5000, ran the anchoring 1600 meter leg. The Distance Medley Relay took fifth place in 12:01, an impressive feat considering that all four legs competed in multiple events at the meet.
Last but not least, the top-ranked 4x400 meter relay of Howard, Veronica Ivey '08, Carrie Plitt '08, and Heather Bemis '09 ran with the knowledge that the team was a mere 6 points behind Wisconsin Oshkosh, who was also in the event. However, Oshkosh ran a very solid relay to capture fifth, edging out the Eph relay's sixth-placed time of 3:55. Now the Ephs will celebrate their second place finish and numerous All-American honors while taking some recovery time before easing back into what promises to be a big outdoor track season. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9416
Men Compete at Trinity Last Chance MeetMarch 4, 2006
Friday afteroon a small group of Eph track and field athletes traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to compete in the Trinity Last Chance Meet at Yale University. Although most of the competitors had already secured their trip to NCAA's, Head Coach Ralph White wanted them to get in a solid workout in preparation for next weekend's championships.
Field competitors Markus Burns '06 and Branden Mirach '07 sought qualifying marks in the high jump and triple jump, respectively. Although both came up just short, Burns tied for first place with a mark of 6' 5.5" and Mirach claimed second in the triple with a leap of 45' 7.5". Dan Austin '06, already qualified in the weight throw, threw the shot put this weekend to try and improve his provisional mark in that event. He threw 52' 2" for first place in the event, coming up short of his previous season's best of 52' 11".
Already a member of the school record distance medley relay squad, Chris Beeler '08 attempted to improve on his NCAA provisional mark in the 800 meter run. He finished second overall in the event and set a new indoor best of 1:53.4 seconds to bump himself up a few spots on the list.
The rest of the crew that traveled to Yale was most of White's school record setting 1600 meter relay squad, consisting of John Symanski '06, Alex Hoerman '09, Deividas Seferis '09, and George Rodriguez '06. Symanski competed in the open 400 meter and 300 meter dashes, taking first overall in the longer event with a 49.22 clocking. He finished third in the shorter event, just behind Seferis and Rodriguez. Only Seferis competed in the 55 meter dash, taking sixth place with a 6.63 mark, while Rodriguez placed second in the open 400 with a time of 50.19 seconds.
Next week a large group of Eph athletes will head to St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota for the Div. III NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. With times near the top of the qualifying lists in both relays and several open events, the Ephmen will aim high, seeking NCAA titles and a possible team trophy.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9382
Plitt and Howard Post NCAA-qualifying Times at YaleMarch 5, 2006
A small contingent of women's track and field traveled to Yale this weekend for the Trinity Last Chance Meet. The meet served largely as a sharpening workout for some of the runners set to compete at nationals next weekend and as a last opportunity for some athletes to post national-qualifying marks.
Sprinters Carrie Plitt '08 and Katie Howard '07 both broke Howard's school record of 58.2 seconds in the 400 meter dash en route to taking the first and third places in the event. Plitt's time of 57.64 moves her to 13th in the nation, while Howard's 58.00 stands 17th.
Another school record was destroyed by two Eph runners in the 300 meter dash, where co-captain Katie Fulton '06 ran 40.76 seconds for second place, while Howard ran 40.98 to take third. The previous record, also held by Fulton, was 41.95 seconds.
This week, the Ephs will travel to the Division III NCAA Championships at St.Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota. Events will take place Friday 3/10 and Saturday 3/11. The women will be serious contenders for a high team placing at nationals, as they have the top-ranked distance medley relay and 4x400 relay teams in the country, along with potential All-Americans in a whole host of events, including the 55, 400, 800, and 5000 meter races, the high and triple jumps, and the shot put. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9387
Men Run NCAA Leading Relays at New England ChampionshipsFebruary 26, 2006
One week after successfully claiming their third straight Div. III New England title, the men’s track and field team traveled to Boston University this past weekend for the Open New England Championships. The meet featured competition from Div. I, II, and III schools, and the University of Connecticut took home the overall title with 161.5 points. The Ephmen finished seventh with 31 points, despite sending a very limited squad, and were the top Div. III finisher at the meet. Taking advantage of stiff competition and a speedy track, the men stamped themselves as a force to be reckoned with at NCAA’s in two weeks, netting several school records and automatic qualifying marks.
“I think the baton should get performer of the week for this meet”, said Mike Davitian ’07. “Everyone who touched it seemed to run a great race.” Indeed the men’s distance medley relay kicked off the excitement on Friday evening, passing the stick around through legs of 1200, 400, 800, and 1600 meters. Bill Ference ’07 led things off in fine form, clicking off a 3:04 leg before handing off to George Rodriguez ’06. The senior split a mid-48 second quarter before launching Chris Beeler ’08 on a 1:53 half mile effort. Davitian anchored the relay himself, splitting 4:09 for his mile leg, breaking the tape in 9:56 for a five-second school record, New England title, and the number one ranked time in the nation right now.
Earlier in the day Brooks Udelsman ’09 had contested the 1000-meter run in outstanding fashion, setting a three second personal best with his 2:32 clocking, and narrowly missing out on Saturday’s final. Tyler Gray ’07 advanced to the final of the 800-meter run with a 1:55 mark, before taking third place in the event on Saturday afternoon. His new personal best of 1:52.29 seconds just missed the school record and places him even higher on the NCAA list.
A small crew of field event athletes competed on Friday and Saturday, not quite reaching the high standard they had set for themselves last week and earlier in the season. Joe Song ’08 leaped to tenth place with a mark of 21’ 7.5” in the long jump, while Branden Mirach ’07 competed in the triple jump, also placing tenth overall. Dan Austin ’06 threw only the shot put on the meet’s second day, with a best mark of 48’ 9” also good enough for tenth in that event.
The lone long-distance representative on Saturday morning, Andy Stevenson ’07 set a personal best in the 3000-meter run with his 8:50 clocking for 15th place overall. Next on the track in the early afternoon, Davitian doubled back in the open mile run, completing the 8-lap circuit in 4:11 to claim third place in New England.
The sprinters then took over, with the men’s 1600-meter relay set to close out the meet. The squad consisted of Deividas Seferis ’09, Rodriguez, John Symanski ’06, and Alex Hoerman ’09, all doubling back from events earlier in the day and on Friday. Seferis had competed in the 55 and 200-meter dashes, Rodriguez the 500 and DMR, and Symanski and Hoerman the open 400-meter run. All of these events set the stage for a thrilling conclusion.
“Lithium” led off for the Ephmen, charging out near the lead and getting excellent position on the first lap. He handed off at right about 48 seconds, and Rodriguez bolted ahead, attempting to hang in there and get the stick around near the lead. Another clean pass to Symanski ensued, and the senior captain showed strength in the latter stages of his leg with a 48.xx split as well. Hoerman took the baton right near the lead, and it was clear that the race would come down to the Ephs and UMass-Lowell. Hoerman’s outstanding final leg stopped the clock at 3:14.05, good enough for second place in New England, a two-second school record, and the number one time in Div. III right now.
The baton truly held the magic for the Ephmen at the New England Championships, coming through with a pair of school records and NCAA-leading times. In two weeks the largest contingent of Ephmen in a long time will head to Minnesota for the Div. III NCAA Indoor Championships, a squad that has definite potential for several titles and a team trophy. Head Coach Ralph White was certainly pleased with his team’s performance this weekend, and will look for even more to come from this squad during the last competition of the season.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9351
Division III New England ChampionsFebruary 19, 2006
MEDFORD, MA — Four-time defending champions women’s track and field reclaimed their title at the Division III New England Indoor Track Championships held at Tufts on Saturday. Although their total of 154 points soundly defeated Tufts’ total of 122, the women were projected to win by an even larger margin. As a result, there was an overall air of dissatisfaction with team’s performance after the meet, despite several very good individual performances. Quoting President Kennedy, Head Coach Ralph White asked in a team meeting last Thursday: “Why be second, when first is possible?” The insatiable desire to always strive for more should lead the Ephs to even bigger breakthroughs in the coming weeks.
Stand-out performances from the sprint group included a win in the 55 meter dash by Katie Fulton ’06 (captain) in a blistering time of 7.21 seconds, a provisional mark that moves her to sixth in the nation in the race to qualify for nationals. Carrie Plitt ’08 finished just behind Fulton to earn her first NCAA provisional mark of the season while taking second place in 7.28 seconds. The Fulton-Plitt duo returned to take first and second again in the 200 meter dash, Fulton running 25.99 while Plitt clocked a 26.10. Veronica Ivey ’08 ran a season’s best of 59.99 to take fourth in the 400 meter dash. While the 4x400 meter relay team could not replicate the blazing 3:56 they ran last weekend, they still netted second place points, placing just behind Tufts in 4:01.65.
In the mid-distance contests, the Ephs had several top contenders who were able to score points. Katie Howard ’07 shaved nearly two seconds off of last weekend’s time with her third place finish in the 800 meters, improving her provisional NCAA-qualifying time to 2:15.94. Heather Bemis ’09 ran a season’s best of 1:38.45 in the 600 meters to take third. During the 1 Mile run, Caroline Cretti ’06 looked poised to take the victory until the very end of the race, when a Tufts runner edged past her just before the line. Cretti’s time of 5:01 improves upon a provisional NCAA-qualifying time set earlier in the season. Teammate Lissy Robie ’08 set a new personal record of 5:04 in the Mile to provisionally qualify for NCAA’s as well, while placing fifth in the race. A tired-out Robie later returned in the 1000 meter run take tenth in 3:06, helping to pull teammate Julie McNamara ’09 to a season’s best of 3:07 and 11th place.
The Ephs elected to save many of their faster distance runners’ legs for later meets by running no one in the 5000 meters, while a group of first-years including Rachel Asher ’09, Lauren Philbrook ’09, and Beth Links ’09 competed in the 3000 meter run. Asher set a 25-second season’s best and took ninth place in 10:29, while Philbrook finished 9 seconds later for tenth place. The Distance Medley Relay team of Cretti (1200), Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 (400), Laura Ellison ’07 (800), and Liz Gleason ’08 (1600) nearly won, but Gleason was caught by a Wesleyan runner just before the line.
The field team got off to a great start on Friday with the performances of Maddie Outman ’08 in the pentathlon. Outman racked up a total of 3043 points to achieve a second place finish in the event. Lindsay Millert ’09 also competed well to take sixth in the pentathlon. Outman continued her success by placing second in the 55 meter hurdles, tying her personal best of 8.64, while Kristin Moss ’06 took third and Millert was fifth. Moss also took second in the long jump with a leap of 17’5.5.” In the triple jump, Caroline Doctor ’07 and Moss took first and third with their respective jumps of 37’9.25” and 36’3.5.” Abelee Esparza ’07 had a breakout performance in the weight throw, joining teammate Alex Phillips ’07 on the list of those provisionally qualified for nationals. Esparza’s toss of 49’6.5” placed third at the meet. In the shot put, Katie Krause ’06 (captain) continued her season’s consistency by throwing 41’9.25” for second place.
Next week the Ephs will travel back to Boston University for the All New England Championships, giving them the opportunity to face some solid Division I and II competition as they continue to prepare for nationals. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9322
Division III New England Champions
February 19, 2006
MEDFORD, MA — Four-time defending champions women’s track and field reclaimed their title at the Division III New England Indoor Track Championships held at Tufts on Saturday. Although their total of 154 points soundly defeated Tufts’ total of 122, the women were projected to win by an even larger margin. As a result, there was an overall air of dissatisfaction with team’s performance after the meet, despite several very good individual performances. Quoting President Kennedy, Head Coach Ralph White asked in a team meeting last Thursday: “Why be second, when first is possible?” The insatiable desire to always strive for more should lead the Ephs to even bigger breakthroughs in the coming weeks.
Stand-out performances from the sprint group included a win in the 55 meter dash by Katie Fulton ’06 (captain) in a blistering time of 7.21 seconds, a provisional mark that moves her to sixth in the nation in the race to qualify for nationals. Carrie Plitt ’08 finished just behind Fulton to earn her first NCAA provisional mark of the season while taking second place in 7.28 seconds. The Fulton-Plitt duo returned to take first and second again in the 200 meter dash, Fulton running 25.99 while Plitt clocked a 26.10. Veronica Ivey ’08 ran a season’s best of 59.99 to take fourth in the 400 meter dash. While the 4x400 meter relay team could not replicate the blazing 3:56 they ran last weekend, they still netted second place points, placing just behind Tufts in 4:01.65.
In the mid-distance contests, the Ephs had several top contenders who were able to score points. Katie Howard ’07 shaved nearly two seconds off of last weekend’s time with her third place finish in the 800 meters, improving her provisional NCAA-qualifying time to 2:15.94. Heather Bemis ’09 ran a season’s best of 1:38.45 in the 600 meters to take third. During the 1 Mile run, Caroline Cretti ’06 looked poised to take the victory until the very end of the race, when a Tufts runner edged past her just before the line. Cretti’s time of 5:01 improves upon a provisional NCAA-qualifying time set earlier in the season. Teammate Lissy Robie ’08 set a new personal record of 5:04 in the Mile to provisionally qualify for NCAA’s as well, while placing fifth in the race. A tired-out Robie later returned in the 1000 meter run take tenth in 3:06, helping to pull teammate Julie McNamara ’09 to a season’s best of 3:07 and 11th place.
The Ephs elected to save many of their faster distance runners’ legs for later meets by running no one in the 5000 meters, while a group of first-years including Rachel Asher ’09, Lauren Philbrook ’09, and Beth Links ’09 competed in the 3000 meter run. Asher set a 25-second season’s best and took ninth place in 10:29, while Philbrook finished 9 seconds later for tenth place. The Distance Medley Relay team of Cretti (1200), Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 (400), Laura Ellison ’07 (800), and Liz Gleason ’08 (1600) nearly won, but Gleason was caught by a Wesleyan runner just before the line.
The field team got off to a great start on Friday with the performances of Maddie Outman ’08 in the pentathlon. Outman racked up a total of 3043 points to achieve a second place finish in the event. Lindsay Millert ’09 also competed well to take sixth in the pentathlon. Outman continued her success by placing second in the 55 meter hurdles, tying her personal best of 8.64, while Kristin Moss ’06 took third and Millert was fifth. Moss also took second in the long jump with a leap of 17’5.5.” In the triple jump, Caroline Doctor ’07 and Moss took first and third with their respective jumps of 37’9.25” and 36’3.5.” Abelee Esparza ’07 had a breakout performance in the weight throw, joining teammate Alex Phillips ’07 on the list of those provisionally qualified for nationals. Esparza’s toss of 49’6.5” placed third at the meet. In the shot put, Katie Krause ’06 (captain) continued her season’s consistency by throwing 41’9.25” for second place.
Next week the Ephs will travel back to Boston University for the All New England Championships, giving them the opportunity to face some solid Division I and II competition as they continue to prepare for nationals. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9322
Williams wins Div. III New England'sFebruary 18, 2006
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Going into Saturday’s Div. III New England Indoor Track and Field Championships, the Ephmen had a different role to play than the last two years: the favorite. Head Coach Ralph White feared that his squad might fall victim to a complacent attitude, and urged them to not be content with their position. Instead of overcoming a deficit on paper, capturing their third straight title would require maintaining a slim lead over a determined Tufts squad and host MIT. With solid performances across the board, they did just that, securing the championship with a total of 153 points to Tufts’ runner-up 131 and Bates’ distant third place total of 62.5.
Joe Song ’08 kicked off the action in Friday’s pentathlon, placing third with a 3060 point total in his first full competition, exceeding his seed and getting the Ephs some momentum going into Saturday. However, Tufts collected second, fourth, and sixth places to bring a ten point lead into the main day of competition.
In the morning the sprinters got through all of their qualifying heats successfully, with John Symanski ’06, Andrew Arons ’08, and Deividas Seferis ’09 advancing to the finals of the 55-meter dash. Symanski and Seferis also qualified for the finals of the 200-meter dash. The field events also got underway, as Dan Austin ’06 challenged former NCAA Champion Uzoma Orji of MIT in the weight throw and Branden Mirach ’07 took on Tufts’ star Fred Jones in the long jump. Both collected solid points in their first events of the day, Austin claiming second and Mirach fourth. Song also doubled back from his long day on Friday to pick up vital points with a sixth place in the long jump.
The Ephs still felt a little uneasy about their position, however, as Tufts maintained their lead and had yet to show off their outstanding distance runners. This year the spark that lit a fire under the Ephmen came from Mike Davitian ’07 in the mile run, the first track final of the day. Not always comfortable in the pack, Davitian shot straight to the front to avoid trouble in a large field, set a quick pace, and kicked home for a decisive victory in 4:15.
“Mike ran a tactically brilliant race”, Sean Hyland ’07 said. “He was never further back than second the whole race and when it came time to kick he was right on the leader’s shoulder.”
The Ephmen built on this momentum throughout the rest of the afternoon, winning multiple sprint and mid-distance titles to go along with solid scoring in the field events and relays. Mirach had a third place finish in the triple jump, cracking the 46-foot barrier, and Austin placed third in the shot put. Andrew DeSalvo ’08 also stepped up in the shot put with a toss of 47’ 8.75” for sixth place. Markus Burns ’06 placed fourth in the high jump with a leap of 6’ 5”.
In the 600-meter run, Tyler Gray ’07 ran from the front for an impressive 1.5 second victory in 1:21.4, while George Rodriguez ’06 placed fifth in the same event. Chris Beeler ’08 captured second place points in the 800-meter run, while Bill Ference ’07 did the same in the 1000, both knowing they would be counted on later to provide important relay legs.
The lone distance highlight of the afternoon for the Ephs, Neal Holtschulte ’06 kicked to a three-second victory in the 3000-meter run over a solid field in a time of 8:37. After the last individual event on the track, the Ephmen had built a substantial lead of ten points going into the relays.
An unusual distance medley relay in which Tufts got disqualified for violating the uniform rule meant that the Ephs had all but wrapped up the title. The 1600-meter relay squad sealed the deal with their victory in 3:22.6.
Although the Ephs claimed their third straight championship, next year’s defense will prove quite challenging with the loss of so many big point scorers. However, there will no doubt be a strong group of athletes ready to step up and fill those roles.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9317
Ephs Sharpen Up at BU Valentine Classic
February 12, 2006
The men’s track and field team had another successful weekend in their preparations for next week’s Div. III New England Championships, competing in Boston at the BU Valentine Invitational and the MIT Coed Invitational. Several athletes posted huge personal bests, others NCAA qualifying marks, and one foursome set an unlikely school record in the 1600-meter relay. The results, as Head Coach Ralph White said, “Show that we are peaking at just the right time.”
The Ephmen knew they would be in for a long day at BU when they looked at the heat sheets, with hundreds of athletes hoping to take advantage of the notoriously fast track. An efficient starting system, however, with one heat going off almost immediately after the previous one ended, ensured that everyone would have a chance to race.
The Saturday kicked off for several Eph distance runners just after 10 AM, with Neal Holtschulte ’06 posting an automatic NCAA qualifying time in the 5000-meter run. His 14:31 ranks in the top-five in the country right now, with several other Div. III runners also clocking fast times at the Valentine Invite. Corey Levin ’08 qualified for New Englands with his 15:31 mark in a later heat.
As the last distance heats wrapped up the morning activity, the Eph middle distance runners and sprinters took center stage. Still sharpening up his speed, Bill Ference ’07 ran a New England qualifying mark in the mile of 4:22, and came back a few hours later with an impressive 2:32 1000. A key member of this event group, Ference’s ability to run multiple events in one meet will prove especially vital to Eph chances next weekend. Sean Hyland ’07 and Brooks Udelsman ’09 also qualified themselves for New Englands in the 1000-meter run with times of 2:33 and 2:35, respectively.
John Symanski ’06, Alex Hoerman ’09, and Deividas Seferis ’09 all took to the oval next, competing in their respective individual events. The first two contested the 400-meter run, sprinting to fast marks of 49.53 and 50.11 respectively. Seferis ran the one lap event, posting another fast time of 22.39. Their days were not done, however, as all three would return later for the 1600-meter relay.
In the field events, Dan Austin ’06 continued an excellent string of throws in the shot put, launching a 51’ 4.5” toss, while Andrew DeSalvo ’08 and David DeVaughn ’07 also turned in strong performances. The Ephmen will count on these three, led by Austin, to bring home their usual solid point total next weekend. The major highlight on the field came from Branden Mirach’s ’07 big leap in the long jump, covering 22’ 7” in all. His bound set a new personal best, almost reached the NCAA provisional qualifying standard, and placed sixth overall in a competitive field.
The biggest fireworks of the day, however, came in the 800-meter run. Tyler Gray ’07 had a breakthrough performance that most runners only dream about, smashing his previous personal best by several seconds with a 1:52.93 four-lapper. Chris Beeler ’08 also won his heat in 1:53.65, while miler Mike Davitian ’07 got knocked around a bit in his 1:55 effort, and George Rodriguez ’06 led wire-to-wire in his 1:57. Gray and Beeler both provisionally qualified themselves for NCAA’s. White had a lot to say about his half-milers: “I was very pleased with Tyler’s five second PR, as he sped up on every lap, and I think Chris could have gone even faster if he had made some smarter decisions in his race. With the return of Bill to the lineup, it’s going to be difficult deciding who will run what leg on the DMR (distance medley relay).”
White will also now face a tough decision about his 1600-meter relay squad, with several previous members returning from injury and new ones stepping up. Saturday’s squad of Seferis, Symanski, Gray, and Hoerman posted a new school record of 3:16.15, and in addition placed themselves at number two on the NCAA performance lists with their provisional mark. All four ran strong legs, with first years Seferis and Hoerman providing a smart opening leg and a solid anchor.
With all of the outstanding sprint and middle distance performances from the Ephmen this week, and the contesting of the 400, 600, 800, 1000, 4x400, 4x800, and DMR at New Englands, it seems that next weekend will play right to Eph strengths. However, Tufts and host MIT will come ready to challenge as always, and probably with renewed vigor now that the Ephs occupy the position of favorite.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9285
Many New Qualifiers and PR's Set at BUFebruary 11, 2006
Women’s track and field traveled to Boston University to face off against tough Division I competition in the Valentine Invitational on Friday. By the time their bus returned to campus, after 1 AM Saturday morning, the women were exhausted but could rest contentedly after many exemplary efforts at the meet. Many obtained or improved their qualifying times and marks for the coming championship meets, while many others achieved personal records or season’s bests.
Distance runners Liz Gleason ’08 and Mallory Harlin ’08 started off the meet with a bang, taking advantage of BU’s “fast track” to run personal records in the 3000 meters. Gleason clocked a 9:55, fast enough to beat several runners in the championship heat and take an impressive 13th overall. Harlin set a 12 second personal record with her 10:07 for 28th place. In a later heat, Lauren Philbrook ’09 and Beth Links ’09 both ran to personal bests of 10:36 and 10:54, respectively. Next up was Caroline Cretti ’06 (captain) in the championship heat of the 5000 meters. Cretti ran a season’s best of 16:54 for 6th place (she was already auto-qualified for NCAA’s).
In the 1 Mile, Rachel Asher ’09 looked very strong, running a personal best of 5:14.67. Asher later doubled back in the 1000 meters to run 3:07. Both times are qualifiers for next week’s Division III New Englands. “I started off the 1000 feeling like it was an 800, then I got tired and it started to feel more like mile pace,” said Asher, who was running the event for the first time. Ryan Jane Jacoby ’09 also competed in the mile, running a season’s best of 5:27.92.
Lissy Robie ’08 blew away the rest of her heat in the 800 meters to run a personal record that improves her provisional NCAA-qualifying time to 2:16.28. Robie began pulling away from the pack with 300 meters remaining, looking relaxed and confident during her blazing kick. Sprinter Katie Howard ’07 ran her first 800 meters of the season and pulled off a provisional qualifier for NCAA’s of 2:17.85. Heather Bemis ’09 ran 2:18.65, a personal best in the open 800 meters. Still, Bemis felt dissatisfied: “We went out so slow. I need to be more aggressive off of the line so that I don’t get pushed to the back. I felt like I still had more left in me at the end, which isn’t good.”
The drama of the evening occurred during the heat of the 800 meters in which Laura Ellison ’07 and Mary Feeley ’09 competed. Ellison was looking quite strong, leading the pack and kicking hard with 150 meters remaining when a fellow racer stepped on her heel, bringing her flat on her face in the infield. She scrambled to her feet after the pack had passed and bravely finished the heartbreaking race with a scraped-up shoulder. “It really freaked me out when Laura fell, because she was right there with me and all of a sudden she went down and disappeared,” said Feeley, who, nonetheless, finished up strong for an indoor personal record of 2:24.43. Ellison, as always, kept a great attitude and was still smiling after the race, an example of great sportsmanship. Also of note, Robin Kuntz ’09 ran a personal record of 2:24.28, and Andrea Burke ’06 ran a season’s best of 2:26.23 to qualify for Division III New England’s.
In the 200 meter dash, Katie Fulton ’06 (captain) and Carrie Plitt ’08 each won their heats in respective times of 25.64 and 25.75 seconds. Maddie Outman ’08 ran a personal record of 26.68 in the 200 meters after winning her heat of the 55 meter hurdles in 8.64 seconds. Veronica Ivey ’08 ran a season’s best of 60.49 in the 400 meters, while Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 ran a personal record of 61.96 seconds. The team of Howard, Plitt, Bemis, and Outman ran an outstanding 4x400 meter relay in 3:56.6, snatching second in their heat and 11th overall. This is a very strong provisional time for NCAA’s, moving Williams’ 4x400 team to second in the nation currently. Bemis split a remarkable 58.4, explaining afterwards that “I was still mad about my 800, and Coach told us that we could redeem ourselves in the relay.” Although Outman was feeling fatigued after her other events, she finished her anchoring leg strong enough to still take second in the heat.
The field team had many great performances as well. Alex Phillips ’07 achieved another personal record in the weight throw this week, significantly improving her provisional mark for NCAA’s to 50’11” while taking ninth place at the meet. In the shot put, Katie Krause ’06 (captain) also improved her provisional NCAA mark and took fifth place (out of 55 participants) with her throw of 43’5.25.” Kristin Moss ’06 provisionally qualified for NCAA’s and earned 10th place in the high jump with her mark of 5’4.25” Moss also long-jumped to 18th place with her leap of 16’4.25.”
Next, the Ephwomen look forward to defending their title at the Division III New England Championships to be held at Tufts University next Friday and Saturday. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9272
Ephs Have Another Strong WeekendFebruary 5, 2006
A small group of track athletes made the trip on Friday to run in one of the largest and most prestigious indoor meets in the country, the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. Hosted by the New York City Armory, the meet featured competition from many elite Div. I schools, including Texas, LSU, and Villanova. In the evening a four man squad contested the distance medley relay, consisting of an opening 1200-meter leg (6 laps of the 200m track), a 400, an 800, and finally a 1600 meter run. Tyler Gray ’07 led off for the Ephs with a solid leg, handing the baton off in 3:07. John Symanski ’06 then whipped around the track twice in about 50 seconds, bringing the stick to Chris Beeler ’08 a few seconds shy of four minutes. Beeler showed off his long, powerful stride with a 1:54/5 split, and Mike Davitian ’07 brought it home with a 4:13 final leg, for a 10:06 total time and runner-up in their heat. The time provisionally qualified them for the NCAA meet, although the foursome hopes to run faster in the coming weeks, with the potential to take a shot at the long-standing school record of 10:01.
While Beeler and Gray returned to Williams on Friday evening, Davitian and Symanski stuck around to run in individual events the next day. The former attacked his specialty, the mile run, winning his heat by almost three seconds with a 4:12.99 clocking, also a strong provisional NCAA qualifier. Symanski, along with Deividas “Lithium” Seferis ’09, competed in the open 200-meter dash. Both put in solid efforts, with the former clocking 22.70 and the latter 22.65 for the one lap race.
Along with the few Armory competitors, the Ephs sent a full squad to Smith College for the 2006 Tartan Invitational, and ended up taking home the overall first place team trophy as well as several individual event honors. The Ephmen totaled 164 points to Bryant’s 152.5 and Coast Guard’s 120.
Top individual performances came from all event groups, with one of the most remarkable of the day coming from Alex Hoerman ’09. Hoerman ran away with the 400-meter dash in impressive fashion, clocking a 51.19 to capture the title by over one second. The 1600 meter relay squad also finished second, as did Drew Raab ’06 in the 600-meter dash.
In the jumps, Marcus Burns ’06 took his usual first place, although he was not quite satisfied with his 6’ 4” height and hopes to go higher in subsequent weeks. Branden Mirach ’07 also collected big points for the Ephs, who will count on him to do the same at New Englands in two weeks. He claimed second place in the long jump with a leap of 21’ 10” and first in the triple jump with a big mark of 45’ 6.25”.
Dan Austin ’06 led the way for the Ephs in the throws, backed up by solid performances from Andrew DeSalvo ’08 and David DeVaughn ’07. Austin upped his season’s best mark in the shot put to 52’ 11” in claiming that title, while DeSalvo did the same with his put of 46’ 11.75”, good enough for third place. The outdoor NCAA discus champion also threw the weight further than any other competitor with a launch of 61’ 41.75”. DeVaughn placed second in the event with a mark of 48’ 6”.
The middle distance and distance crews continued to pick up their New England qualifying times, bolstered by the return of six men who spent their January biking and running across Arizona and California. Mid-distance standout Bill Ference ’07 seemed a little rusty in his mile, but he claimed second place in the 1000-meter run with a 2:36 mark, and should be sharpened up just in time for another big New England Championships. First-year Macklin Chaffee continued his strong indoor season with a 2:37 1000 for third place. In the 3000-meter run, the Eph distance runners packed up and ran another smart race, with several collecting personal bests and New England qualifiers. Andy Stevenson ’07 led the way with his third place 8:56.4, while Thomas Brennan ’06 and Tim Durham ’09 followed close behind in fourth and fifth.
All in all the Ephmen had another successful weekend, building towards their New England title defense in two weeks at MIT. The competition will no doubt be fierce as always. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9234
Cretti, Howard Win Events en Route to 5th at Boston Indoor GamesJanuary 28, 2006
Despite competing with only part of their squad, women’s track and field came away with fifth place at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, held yesterday at Northeastern University. Their 81 points placed first among Division III teams, behind only Northeastern, Boston College, Southern Connecticut, and University of Southern Florida. The Ephs were granted wins by Katie Howard ’07 in the 500 meter dash and Caroline Cretti ’06 in the 3000 meter run.
Cretti won the 3000 meters in 9:56.84, and Liz Gleason ’08 took third while setting a 13-second personal record with her 10:03.57. Lauren Philbrook ’09 ran to ninth place in 10:47.62 and Beth Links ’09 ran 10:56.7, a 10-second personal record and Division III New England qualifying time. In the 800 meter run, Lissy Robie ’08 raced to second place with her 2:17.88, a provisional qualifying time for nationals. Laura Ellison ’07 qualified for Division III New Englands with her 2:26.35 in the 800 meters. Heather Bemis ’09 ran a very fast time of 3:00.02 in the 1000 meter run and took fourth place. Although there is no 1000 meter event at nationals, Bemis’ time easily qualifies her for all of the other championship meets. Mary Feely ’09 improved her personal record by over 5 seconds in the 1000 meters, running 3:08.02, and Ally Holmes ’07 joined the list of Eph distance runners qualified for Division III New Englands with her 3:13.66. In the Mile, Julie McNamara ’09 and Sarah Hill ’09 ran excellent times of 5:22.64 and 5:25.71, taking the seventh and eighth places and qualifying for Division III New Englands.
Although not many Eph sprinters competed at this meet, they were well-represented by Katie Howard ’07, who won the 500 meter dash in 1:16.3. Also notable was the comeback of Veronica Ivey ’08, who ran an impressive 60.96 seconds in the 400 meters for eighth place. Ivey had been sidelined with an Achilles injury but now looks to be back in top form. The women also ran to an impressive second place in the 4x 400 meter relay, edging out Southern Connecticut in a time of 4:00.02. The distance medley relay, anchored by Cretti, also achieved a second place finish.
The field team also scored many points. Caroline Doctor ’07 leaped 37’8.5” to place second in the triple jump, while Kristin Moss ’06 grabbed sixth place with her mark of 36’3.” Moss and Doctor traded places in the long jump, with Moss jumping 17’7.5” for fourth place and Doctor coming in 10th with her leap of 16’8.75.” In the weight throw, Alex Phillips ’07 took fourth place with her toss of 45’9.25,” and Katie Krause ’06 achieved eighth place with her 43’05.75” throw. Krause was also the top Eph competitor in the shot put, throwing 41’2.25” for ninth place.
Next week, a handful of Williams’ fastest athletes will compete at the New York Metropolitan Championships, held at the Armory, while the rest will travel to Smith College for the Smith Tartan Invitational.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9203
Williams Track and Field to raise $100k for Spring Break 2007 in ItalyCoach White and his team of dedicated athletes are scrambling to raise $100,000 for a spring break trip to Italy in 2007. The large sum is necessary to take the entire team. White considers the inclusiveness of his program a hallmark of Williams Track and Field, and wouldn't consider the trip otherwise. While other programs might take similar spring trips to Europe, few attempt to bring an entire squad of over 100 athletes.
The NESCAC (New England Small Colleges Athletic Conference) allows international trips every four years. In the past, Williams Track and Field hasn't taken it's spring break trips outside the US because it is prohibitively expensive, however other Williams sports teams have taken international trips. For example, Women's soccer has been to Brazil, Men's hockey to France. In fact, Italy was chosen as the tentative location because the Men's Soccer team went there recently, and strongly recommended their tour organizer. According to Suzanne Geer, '07, "it [Italy] will be a great bonding experience as a team and a perfect opportunity to explore a new exciting place."
A committee of athletes consisting primarily of juniors and sophomores has been set up to brainstorm ways to raise money. "We have a lot of excitement and great ideas right now, we just need to buckle down and get started," says Michael Davitian, '07. Some of the ideas being floated include the sale of clothing on team's website, delivering groceries, organizing community road races, bingo, jog-a-thons, etc. The team hopes to raise the necessary funds by January, 2007.
Ephs Run Away With Home MeetWilliams women destroyed the competition at the annual Williams Quad, their only home track meet of the indoor season, scoring 288 points to MIT's 122.5, Westfield State's 78.5, and RPI's 61.
The distance squad triumphed in every race up from 600 to 3000 meters. Lissy Robie ’08 tried her hand at a bit shorter distance than she is accustomed to in the 600 meter run, and she met great success with her 1:40.9 time, which qualifies for the ECAC and (provisionally) for the All New England meets later this season. Second place Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 came in three seconds behind Robie to qualify for the Division III New England meet. Mary Feely ’09 claimed victory in the 800 meter run, just meeting the Division III New England standard with her 2:28.49. Ally Holmes ’07 took fourth place in 2:33.58. Distance runners Caroline Cretti ’06 (captain) and Mallory Harlin ’08 tried out their mid-distance legs in the 1000 meter run and grabbed first and second places with their respective times of 3:03.67 and 3:07.27. Robin Kuntz ’09, Liz Gleason ’08, and Sarah Hill ’09 swept the fourth through sixth places and each qualified for the Division III New England meet.
Cretti also handily won the mile run, setting a new field house record of 5:03.17, which provisionally qualifies for nationals. Lauren Philbrook ’09, Karin Knudson ’09, Megan Bruck ’07, and Laura Ellison ’07 swept the third through sixth places of the mile. Rachel Asher ’09 made a dazzling debut on the track, running a well-paced 10:55.24 in the 3000 meters to win the race and qualify for the Division III New England meet. Julie McNamara took the fifth spot in 11:24.45.
The sprinters were in top form as well, winning all of their events. In the 55 meter dash, Captain Katie Fulton ’06 and Carrie Plitt ’08 claimed the top two spots with their respective final times of 7.39 and 7.50 seconds. After six heats of the 300 meter dash, Eph sprinters won the top five spots, led by Fulton in 42.57. Fulton was followed by Katie Howard ’07, Carrie Plitt ’08, Maddie Outman ’08, and Heather Bemis ’09. All-American Howard also set a new field house record of 59.75 seconds in the 400 meter dash, while Bemis took third in 61.1 seconds. The 4x 400 meter relay team of Jessica Kopcho ’09, Addie Buck ’07, Helen Hatch ’09, and Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 took first place in 4:24.61.
As for the field team, Caroline Doctor ’07 won the triple jump by nearly 6 feet, leaping to a field house record of 38’00.75.” This improves her provisional mark for nationals by over six inches. Alex Phillips ’07 took second in the weight throw with her toss of 47’06.5,” while teammates Abelee Esparza ’07 and Captain Katie Krause ’06 took third and fourth. “I was abroad during the fall semester, so I’m really focusing on regaining my strength right now,” said Phillips, whose solid throw qualified her for all postseason competitions except the NCAA meet. In the shot put, Krause, Phillips, and Esparza swept first through third, while multi-eventer Lindsay Millert ’09 took fifth. Krause’s 42’ 09.5” toss is a provisional mark for nationals. Kristen Moss ’06 and Outman took first and second in the high jump with their respective marks of 5’01.75” and 4’11.75.” In the long jump, All-American sprinter Plitt came out with the win, leaping to 16’11.25,” and Outman took third with her jump of 16’10.”
Next up for the Ephs is a trip to Boston next weekend to compete in the Reebok Boston games at Northeastern University on Friday the 27th.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9182
Ephs Win Quad Meet
January 22, 2006
The
Williams men’s track & field team hosted the annual Williams Quad against MIT,
RPI, and Westfield State on Saturday. Going into the meet, the Ephs knew they
were in for a tough contest, as the MIT Engineers are a perennial New England
power. Williams and MIT are always well-matched, since both squads are
exceptionally deep and cover all of the event groups. Looking at the example of
last year’s contest against MIT, a seven point Eph victory, captains John
Symanski ’06, Dan Austin ’06 and Markus Burns ’06 impressed on the team the
importance of every point, with even 7th or 8th place points having the
potential to be the difference between victory and defeat. The Ephs responded to
the challenge with a host of excellent performances across the board. Down by 37
points to MIT early in the meet, the Ephs stormed back, taking home a 15 point
victory, with 207 points to MIT’s 192. RPI took 3rd with 109 points and
Westfield State was fourth with 90.
In a meet filled with close individual duels between Ephs and Engineers, the throwing events provided the finest competition, with a match-up in the weight throw and shot put of two of the best throwers in Division III. MIT’s Uzoma Orji, currently ranked #1 nationally by several feet in both events, faced Dan Austin, national discus champion outdoors. Orji won both events, shattering the field house record in the weight throw in the process. Austin took home a pair of 2nd places, surpassing the national qualifying mark in both events with throws of 56-3 in the weight and 51-8 ¼ in the shot. The rest of the Williams throwers stepped up to take home valuable points. Dave DeVaughn ’07 scored a pair of PR’s in the weight and shot for the second straight week, placing 3rd in the weight with a 45-0 ¼ throw and 6th in the shot with a throw of 43-0 ½. Andrew DeSalvo ’08 and Matt Davis ’07 also placed well, with DeSalvo taking 5th in the shot (45-8 ½) and Davis taking 8th in the shot and 7th in the weight.
The
performance of the Williams sprinters was highlighted by first-year Deividas
Seferis ‘09’s blazing run in the 300 meters. Competing in the second fastest
heat, Seferis outduelled an RPI runner to take the overall event victory and the
facility record in 36.13. John Symanski won the fastest heat to take second
overall in 36.29. Earlier in the meet, Symanski and Seferis competed in the 55
meter dash. With four Ephs in the seven man final, Andrew Arons ’08 led the way,
taking a convincing win in 6.51. Seferis was 3rd in 6.59, Symanski 4th in 6.60
and Branden Mirach ’07 found time in between winning the long and triple jumps
to take 6th in 6.71.
In the longer events, Williams was well-represented. Tyler Gray ‘07 cruised past the field in the 600 meters for a three and a half second victory in 1:23.36. Mike Davitian ’07 had a closer race in the 800, but the result was the same, with Davitian outdistancing an MIT athlete in a quick 1:58.06. In the 1,000, Brooks Udelsman ’09 ran a tough race, narrowly losing to Westfield State’s John Messer in 2:37.69. Aaron Schwartz ’09 picked up a valuable point by taking 8th in the event as well.
In the mile, Neal Holtschulte ’06 ran his usual strong race, surging to the lead in the latter stages and fighting back an MIT challenge to win in 4:23.91. Thomas Brennan ’06 closed extremely well to take home third in 4:30.09. In the 3,000, Morgan Seybert ’08 stuck with MIT’s Eric Khatchadourian for lap after lap before falling slightly behind to take 2nd in 9:01.01. A pair of first-years also ran well: Tim Durham ’09 ran 9:08.92 for 4th and Brendan Christian ’09 ran 9:12.09 for 5th.
The
Williams jumpers were responsible for a pair of victories, both from Branden
Mirach. In the long jump, Mirach took first with an excellent 22-0 ¼. In the
triple, it was 1-2 for the Ephs, with Mirach winning in 44-1 ¼ and Markus Burns
2nd in 43-9 ¾. Burns doubled back in the high jump, clearing 6-4 for 2nd. Eric
Jonash ’09 was 4th in the event, and Joe Song ’08 was 7th, part of a day in
which he competed in three individual events and a relay, highlighted by a 3rd
place finish in the 55 hurdles in 8.26.
The Ephs had a small lead over MIT heading into the final two events, the 4x440 and 4x880 yard relays, but victories in both events put the meet away. In the 4x440, the Ephs fielded a young team. Joe Buck ’09, 4th in the individual 400, led off well, followed by good legs from Joe Song and Eric Jonash. On the anchor leg, John Symanski erased a sizable deficit to beat back the MIT challenge.
Mike Davitian set the tone early in the 4x880, kicking hard on the last lap of his opening leg to establish a big lead over MIT. Brooks Udelsman and Thomas Brennan maintained the lead on their carries, getting the baton to Tyler Gray, who let MIT’s anchor close the gap before cruising away for a comfortable win to end the meet, putting an emphatic stamp on a great performance from the entirety of the Williams track & field team.
Next week, the Ephs will travel to the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, where the extremely fast track and stiff competition should inspire a host of excellent individual performances.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9178
(1/14/05) Ephmen Impressive at Tufts Invite
For their second meet of the season, the Williams track & field team traveled to Medford for the non-scoring Tufts Invitational. The Ephs competed well, taking home victories in two individual events and sweeping the relays.
"Our men had another outstanding meet," said Eph head coach Ralph White. "We placed three in the 55 without running Andrew Arons. George Rodriquez now has the fastest time in New England with his 600 victory which is also true for Tyler Gray in the 1000. Mike Davitian came on late in the race to finish third with an excellent time of 4:03.10 Brooks Udelsman ran super for a first year and showed a lot of potential. Joe Song made his initial 55HH debut and ran great in the trials. Markus Burns just missed at 6'6 in the high jump."
In the 55 meter dash, the Ephs qualified three athletes for the final, taking home fourth, fifth and sixth places with Deividas Seferis ’09, John Symanski ’06, and Branden Mirach ’07. Seferis doubled in the 200 dash as well, placing 3rd in 22.76, behind Andrew Arons’ ‘08’s quick 22.70 for 2nd. In the 400, the much-improved Nick Reynolds ’08 placed 4th in 52.77 and then returned later in the meet to anchor the Ephs victorious 4x400 relay. The 4x200 relay also won, in 1:30.89, only two-tenths of a second off of the school record set last weekend at the Dartmouth Relays.
The Williams middle-distance runners provided both of the individual event victories. George Rodriguez ’06 battled Trevor Williams of Tufts to win the 600 meters by three-tenths. Chris Beeler ’08 ran a solid race to place third. In the 1,000 meters, Tyler Gray ’07 won his race as well, in a fine time of 2:33.07. First-year Macklin Chaffee ’09 was the second Williams finisher in the event with his 8th place finish. A strong Eph contingent competed in the 1,500. Mike Davitian ’07 led the way, placing 3rd in 4:03.10, ahead of Brooks Udelsman ’09 (6th in 4:08.13) and Morgan Seybert ’08 (8th in 4:09.60).
The Williams jumpers provided their usual excellent performances. Markus Burns ’06, in his first meet of the season, took home a hard-fought second place on misses in the high jump behind Jeremy Arak of Tufts, with a jump of 6 feet, 4 inches. In the long jump, Branden Mirach ’07 was also 2nd, behind an unattached athlete, in 20 feet, 10 and ¾ inches. Joe Song ’08 was 5th in the event, part of a busy day in which he also qualified for the final of the 55 meter hurdles and ran the 1,000.
Eph throwers acquitted themselves well in the shot put and weight throw. In the shot, sophomore Andrew DeSalvo ’08 was the top placer, with an impressive toss of 44-6 ¾, good for 3rd place. Dave DeVaughn ’07 took home 6th place in a personal-best 41-3 ¾. In the weight throw, DeVaughn scored another PR in finishing 5th in 41-5 and ¼, just behind Devin Schweppe ’07 (4th in 42-2 ¾) and ahead of Matt Davis ’07 (6th in 41-3).
Next week, the Ephs will have their lone home meet of the year, competing in Towne Field House against a field including traditional rival and perennial DIII New England power MIT, a meet which will give a good indication of the Ephs chances to take home their third straight Division III New England crown.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9143
(1/14/05) Ephwomen Strong Showing at TuftsWomen’s track and field achieved many strong performances at the Tufts Invite in Medford, Massachusetts this Saturday. Williams athletes took first place in five different events, and many women set new personal records.
"The women had a lot of underclass women do well," noted Eph head coach Ralph White. "Carrie Plitt is starting to come on and Maddie Outman had a PR in the 55 high hurdles and shot put. First year Jessi Love-Nichols ran an outstanding 400 as did classmate Helen Hatch. Both of these women will contribute at the NCAA Div. 3 championships. Junior Katie Howard ran the fastest time in New England winning the 600 while first year Heather Bemis finished fourth out of the slow heat. Elizabeth Linds looked good running a PR in the 3000."
Williams dominated the 5000 with Caroline Cretti qualifify auto for NCAA's while teammates Mallory Harlin and Liz Gleason hitting provo marks. Caroline Doctor improve her provo mark for NCAA's while winning the triple jump. Katie Krause hit a provo in the shot put placing second.
The field team looked especially solid, with Caroline Doctor ’07 jumping 16’ 07.25” to win the long jump and Kristin Moss ’06 winning the high jump with her mark of 5’ 03.75”. Both improved their marks from last week’s meet at Dartmouth. In addition, Doctor and Moss took second and third in the triple jump with leaps of 37’ 06.5” and 36’ 04,” respectively. This improves Doctor's provisional national-qualifying mark in the triple jump by 7 inches. Captain Katie Krause ’06 took second in the shot put with her throw of 42’ 09.5,” a mark that provisionally qualifies her for nationals. Krause also took fourth place in the weight throw with a mark of 40’ 06.” Abelee Esparza ’07 executed a weight throw of 43’ 01.5” to capture third place in that event. Multi-eventer Maddy Outman, who has been competing in up to nine events per meet, ran a new personal record of 8.79 seconds in the 55 meter hurdles to capture second place.
The sprinters were in top form as well, crushing the competition in the 4x 400 meter relay. All-Americans Katie Howard ’07, Katie Fulton ’06 (captain), and Carrie Plitt ’08 teamed up with Heather Bemis ’09 to run 4:01.87, besting second-placed UMass Lowell by nearly eight seconds. Howard, who holds the school record for 400 meters, also claimed victory in the 600 meters with her time of 1:38.15. Bemis, with a time of 1:40.69, was the top finisher in her heat of the 600 meters to take fourth overall. Plitt captured third place in the 200 meters with her time of 26.84, while Outman took sixth in 27.47. Both Plitt and Outman also qualified for the 55 meter final, and they dashed to fourth and sixth place finishes in 7.54 and 7.76 seconds, respectively. In the 400 meters, first-years Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 and Helen Hatch ’09 ran 62.30 and 63.42 seconds to take the second and fourth places.
Captain Caroline Cretti ’06 ran an automatic national-qualifying time of 17:06.12 in the 5000 meters, while teammates Liz Gleason ’08 and Mallory Harlin ’08 worked together to achieve huge personal records with their perfectly-paced 17:42. Harlin barely edged out Gleason in the final lap to take third; both are now provisionally qualified for nationals. In the 1000 meters, mid-distance star Lissy Robie ’08 took third in a time of 3:04.67, despite being tripped by a competitor that inconveniently dropped out of the race directly in front of her. “I felt kind of badly, because I had to push her out of the way, and it made her fall over,” said Robie afterward. Robie also anchored the 4x 800 meter relay team that won second place. Mary Feeley ’09, Karin Knudson ’09, and Robin Kuntz ’09 comprised the other three legs of this young group. In the 3000 meters, Beth Links ’09 raced to a big personal record of 11:06.18, taking seventh place.
Next week the Ephs compete at home in the Williams Relays; come cheer them on as they take on MIT, RPI, and Westfield in the Towne Field House, beginning at 10:00 AM Saturday, January 21. Go Ephs!
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9147
Ephs Run Away With Home MeetWilliams women destroyed the competition at the annual Williams Quad, their only home track meet of the indoor season, scoring 288 points to MIT's 122.5, Westfield State's 78.5, and RPI's 61.
The distance squad triumphed in every race up from 600 to 3000 meters. Lissy Robie ’08 tried her hand at a bit shorter distance than she is accustomed to in the 600 meter run, and she met great success with her 1:40.9 time, which qualifies for the ECAC and (provisionally) for the All New England meets later this season. Second place Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 came in three seconds behind Robie to qualify for the Division III New England meet. Mary Feely ’09 claimed victory in the 800 meter run, just meeting the Division III New England standard with her 2:28.49. Ally Holmes ’07 took fourth place in 2:33.58. Distance runners Caroline Cretti ’06 (captain) and Mallory Harlin ’08 tried out their mid-distance legs in the 1000 meter run and grabbed first and second places with their respective times of 3:03.67 and 3:07.27. Robin Kuntz ’09, Liz Gleason ’08, and Sarah Hill ’09 swept the fourth through sixth places and each qualified for the Division III New England meet.
Cretti also handily won the mile run, setting a new field house record of 5:03.17, which provisionally qualifies for nationals. Lauren Philbrook ’09, Karin Knudson ’09, Megan Bruck ’07, and Laura Ellison ’07 swept the third through sixth places of the mile. Rachel Asher ’09 made a dazzling debut on the track, running a well-paced 10:55.24 in the 3000 meters to win the race and qualify for the Division III New England meet. Julie McNamara took the fifth spot in 11:24.45.
The sprinters were in top form as well, winning all of their events. In the 55 meter dash, Captain Katie Fulton ’06 and Carrie Plitt ’08 claimed the top two spots with their respective final times of 7.39 and 7.50 seconds. After six heats of the 300 meter dash, Eph sprinters won the top five spots, led by Fulton in 42.57. Fulton was followed by Katie Howard ’07, Carrie Plitt ’08, Maddie Outman ’08, and Heather Bemis ’09. All-American Howard also set a new field house record of 59.75 seconds in the 400 meter dash, while Bemis took third in 61.1 seconds. The 4x 400 meter relay team of Jessica Kopcho ’09, Addie Buck ’07, Helen Hatch ’09, and Jessica Love-Nichols ’09 took first place in 4:24.61.
As for the field team, Caroline Doctor ’07 won the triple jump by nearly 6 feet, leaping to a field house record of 38’00.75.” This improves her provisional mark for nationals by over six inches. Alex Phillips ’07 took second in the weight throw with her toss of 47’06.5,” while teammates Abelee Esparza ’07 and Captain Katie Krause ’06 took third and fourth. “I was abroad during the fall semester, so I’m really focusing on regaining my strength right now,” said Phillips, whose solid throw qualified her for all postseason competitions except the NCAA meet. In the shot put, Krause, Phillips, and Esparza swept first through third, while multi-eventer Lindsay Millert ’09 took fifth. Krause’s 42’ 09.5” toss is a provisional mark for nationals. Kristen Moss ’06 and Outman took first and second in the high jump with their respective marks of 5’01.75” and 4’11.75.” In the long jump, All-American sprinter Plitt came out with the win, leaping to 16’11.25,” and Outman took third with her jump of 16’10.”
Next up for the Ephs is a trip to Boston next weekend to compete in the Reebok Boston games at Northeastern University on Friday the 27th.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9182
Ephs Win Quad Meet
January 22, 2006
The
Williams men’s track & field team hosted the annual Williams Quad against MIT,
RPI, and Westfield State on Saturday. Going into the meet, the Ephs knew they
were in for a tough contest, as the MIT Engineers are a perennial New England
power. Williams and MIT are always well-matched, since both squads are
exceptionally deep and cover all of the event groups. Looking at the example of
last year’s contest against MIT, a seven point Eph victory, captains John
Symanski ’06, Dan Austin ’06 and Markus Burns ’06 impressed on the team the
importance of every point, with even 7th or 8th place points having the
potential to be the difference between victory and defeat. The Ephs responded to
the challenge with a host of excellent performances across the board. Down by 37
points to MIT early in the meet, the Ephs stormed back, taking home a 15 point
victory, with 207 points to MIT’s 192. RPI took 3rd with 109 points and
Westfield State was fourth with 90.
In a meet filled with close individual duels between Ephs and Engineers, the throwing events provided the finest competition, with a match-up in the weight throw and shot put of two of the best throwers in Division III. MIT’s Uzoma Orji, currently ranked #1 nationally by several feet in both events, faced Dan Austin, national discus champion outdoors. Orji won both events, shattering the field house record in the weight throw in the process. Austin took home a pair of 2nd places, surpassing the national qualifying mark in both events with throws of 56-3 in the weight and 51-8 ¼ in the shot. The rest of the Williams throwers stepped up to take home valuable points. Dave DeVaughn ’07 scored a pair of PR’s in the weight and shot for the second straight week, placing 3rd in the weight with a 45-0 ¼ throw and 6th in the shot with a throw of 43-0 ½. Andrew DeSalvo ’08 and Matt Davis ’07 also placed well, with DeSalvo taking 5th in the shot (45-8 ½) and Davis taking 8th in the shot and 7th in the weight.
The
performance of the Williams sprinters was highlighted by first-year Deividas
Seferis ‘09’s blazing run in the 300 meters. Competing in the second fastest
heat, Seferis outduelled an RPI runner to take the overall event victory and the
facility record in 36.13. John Symanski won the fastest heat to take second
overall in 36.29. Earlier in the meet, Symanski and Seferis competed in the 55
meter dash. With four Ephs in the seven man final, Andrew Arons ’08 led the way,
taking a convincing win in 6.51. Seferis was 3rd in 6.59, Symanski 4th in 6.60
and Branden Mirach ’07 found time in between winning the long and triple jumps
to take 6th in 6.71.
In the longer events, Williams was well-represented. Tyler Gray ‘07 cruised past the field in the 600 meters for a three and a half second victory in 1:23.36. Mike Davitian ’07 had a closer race in the 800, but the result was the same, with Davitian outdistancing an MIT athlete in a quick 1:58.06. In the 1,000, Brooks Udelsman ’09 ran a tough race, narrowly losing to Westfield State’s John Messer in 2:37.69. Aaron Schwartz ’09 picked up a valuable point by taking 8th in the event as well.
In the mile, Neal Holtschulte ’06 ran his usual strong race, surging to the lead in the latter stages and fighting back an MIT challenge to win in 4:23.91. Thomas Brennan ’06 closed extremely well to take home third in 4:30.09. In the 3,000, Morgan Seybert ’08 stuck with MIT’s Eric Khatchadourian for lap after lap before falling slightly behind to take 2nd in 9:01.01. A pair of first-years also ran well: Tim Durham ’09 ran 9:08.92 for 4th and Brendan Christian ’09 ran 9:12.09 for 5th.
The
Williams jumpers were responsible for a pair of victories, both from Branden
Mirach. In the long jump, Mirach took first with an excellent 22-0 ¼. In the
triple, it was 1-2 for the Ephs, with Mirach winning in 44-1 ¼ and Markus Burns
2nd in 43-9 ¾. Burns doubled back in the high jump, clearing 6-4 for 2nd. Eric
Jonash ’09 was 4th in the event, and Joe Song ’08 was 7th, part of a day in
which he competed in three individual events and a relay, highlighted by a 3rd
place finish in the 55 hurdles in 8.26.
The Ephs had a small lead over MIT heading into the final two events, the 4x440 and 4x880 yard relays, but victories in both events put the meet away. In the 4x440, the Ephs fielded a young team. Joe Buck ’09, 4th in the individual 400, led off well, followed by good legs from Joe Song and Eric Jonash. On the anchor leg, John Symanski erased a sizable deficit to beat back the MIT challenge.
Mike Davitian set the tone early in the 4x880, kicking hard on the last lap of his opening leg to establish a big lead over MIT. Brooks Udelsman and Thomas Brennan maintained the lead on their carries, getting the baton to Tyler Gray, who let MIT’s anchor close the gap before cruising away for a comfortable win to end the meet, putting an emphatic stamp on a great performance from the entirety of the Williams track & field team.
Next week, the Ephs will travel to the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, where the extremely fast track and stiff competition should inspire a host of excellent individual performances.
Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9178
Men/Women Second at Dartmouth Relays (1/7/05)
Women's LatestWomen’s track and field opened their season by capturing second place at the 37th Annual Dartmouth Relays this weekend, narrowly losing to Division I Dartmouth. This feat was made all the more impressive given that the Ephs were largely training through this meet and athletes running events of 800 meters or more were forbidden to wear racing spikes by Head Coach Ralph White. Nonetheless, Coach White instructed beforehand that, “This is no excuse to run slowly; you must still go out and race hard.” The team certainly did not disappoint, pulling through with many solid performances in the sprint, distance, and field events.
The sprinters were led by Captain Katie Fulton ’06, who raced to a sixth place finish in the 60 meter dash, scoring third place points for Williams (due to unattached competitors). In the 400 meter dash, Katie Howard ’07 took fifth in 60.92 seconds and also scored third place points. The 4x 200 meter relay edged out UMass Lowell and Wheaton College to earn first place, while the 4x 400 meter relay took fourth place.
Lissy Robie ’08 led the mid-distance group, running an excellent early season time of 5:17 in the 1 Mile to take 6th place while earning fifth place points. In the 800 meters, first-years Heather Bemis ’09 and Robin Kuntz ’09 ran 2:28 and 2:30, respectively, despite lacking their racing spikes.
The distance women dominated their competition, with 2005 Cross Country All-Americans Caroline Cretti ’06 (captain), Liz Gleason ’08, and Mallory Harlin ’08 claiming the second through fourth places in the 3000 meter race in fantastic times of 9:56, 10:16, and 10:19, respectively. However, Cretti, Gleason, and Harlin scored first through third place points, since the race was won by high school star Nicole Blood. Cretti and Gleason also teamed up with Robie and Kuntz at the end of the day to take fourth place in the Distance Medley Relay.
The women’s field team demonstrated their strength with good showings in many events. Kristin Moss ’06 captured ninth place in the High Jump, which tied for fourth place among collegiate competitors. Caroline Doctor ’07 teamed up with Moss to collect third and fourth places, respectively, in the Triple Jump. Doctor also took 11th place in the Long Jump, which was fifth place for college athletes. In the Shot Put, Captain Katie Krause ’06 threw 11.73 meters to take 10th place in a field of 37 competitors. Abelee Esparza ’07 took 12th place in the Weight Throw with her throw of 12.91 meters. In the Indoor Pentathlon, Maddie Outman ’08 ran and jumped her way into 12th place.
The Dartmouth Relays was only a taste of what is to come for the women’s team this year. A second place finish betters their third place team result at this same meet last year, indicating that the team is even stronger in 2006. Next Saturday, the team will travel to Medford, Massachusetts for the Tufts Invitational. Go Ephs!
Men's LatestThe Williams men’s track and field team opened its season on Sunday, competing at the 37th annual Dartmouth Relays at Dartmouth’s Leverone Field House in Hanover, New Hampshire. Competing against a strong field of teams, the Ephs came away with a second-place finish, behind only Division I Dartmouth, defeating 13 teams, including numerous Division I and II squads, as well as NESCAC rivals Tufts, Bates, and Middlebury. The Ephs strong team finish was led by several very impressive individual season-opening performances, including first place finishes in the college division from captain Dan Austin ’06 in the weight throw, Neal Holtschulte ’06 in the 3,000, and the 4x200 meter relay, led by captain John Symanski ‘06. Along with the first place finishes, the Ephs also garnered two national provisional qualifying marks from Austin in the weight and Andrew Arons ’07 in the 60 meter dash, along with a new school record from Symanski’s relay team.
Ralph White’s sprint corps competed well against the strong competition. In the 60 meter dash, both Arons and first-year Deividas Seferis ’09 survived two tough rounds of qualification to advance to the final. In the final, Arons gained on the field in the latter half of the race, blazing to a second place finish in 6.97 seconds, a new personal best and .01 seconds under the provisional qualifying time for nationals. Seferis, in his first race in a Williams uniform, notched a quick 7.08 seconds, good for seventh place. In the 400 meters, Williams was led by John Symanski ‘06, a school record holder and All-American at 200 meters. Competing at the longer distance and coming off of a bout with injury, Symanski still managed a seventh place finish in 51.79. Symanski, Arons, Seferis and Nick Reynolds ’08 came together on the 4x200 relay team for an impressive victory in 1:30.69, putting a distance of nearly two full seconds on the rest of the field. The Eph quartet narrowly broke the Williams record in the event, taking down the former best, set in 2001, by a hundredth of a second.
The talented and deep Williams middle and long distance squad acquitted itself well. Starting it off strong was George Rodriguez in the 800, with a 1:58.79 clocking, good for fourth place among college athletes and fifth overall. In the longest event on the track, the grueling 25 lap 5,000 meters, Williams first-year Brendan Christian ’09 competed strongly, finishing in 15:51.17, two places behind assistant coach Dusty Lopez ’01, who ran to an even 15:27.00. The Ephs had a very strong contingent in the 3,000 meters, led by Neal Holtschulte ’06, competing in his first race since taking the individual title at the cross-country national championship. Running his typical strong second half, Holtschulte took the 3,000 meter college division title (third overall), finishing in 8:30.47. Getting in some racing above their best distance, Eph milers Mike Davitian ’07 and Sean Hyland ’07 also ran excellent races, finishing quickly off of a slow early pace to come in at 8:54 and 8:55 respectively. Hyland returned later in the meet to capably anchor the distance medley relay to a second-place finish.
Off the track, the field team turned in some fine performances of their own. The throwers were led as usual by Dan Austin ’06, last year’s outdoor national champion in the discus. Competing outside his specialty, Austin heaved the 35-pound weight 57 feet, 4 and ¾ inches, well over the provisional qualifying standard for nationals. Austin outdistanced the rest of the college competition by more than 3 feet. Austin also threw the shot 47 feet, 5 inches, good for fifth place. Also competing in the shot was Andrew DeSalvo ’08, who finished 9th against a deep field with a throw of 44 feet, 3 and ¼ inches. The Williams jumpers competed without captain Markus Burns ’06. Jumping in his first meet for new coach Gavin O’Neal, Branden Mirach ’07 stepped up to fill the void, finishing 3rd and 2nd in the long and triple jumps respectively. Mirach’s distances of 21 feet, 11 and ½ inches in the long jump and 44 feet, 5 and ½ inches in the triple jump were made even more impressive because they were achieved with only a partial approach.
Next week the team will be at Tufts for the Tufts Invite, which will give them a good look at some of the teams aiming to stop the Ephs from defending last year’s Division III New England title.
Season Outlook (12/2006)
| Men's Latest | Women's Latest |
| Williams
men's track & field head coach Ralph White has coached track for over 30
years and has been head coach at Williams since the 2001-02 season, so
when he tells you he has a good team this winter – believe it.
White's Eph roster contains not only some of the best performers in the region, but some who are among the best ever at Williams. So it is not surprising when White says, "Even though we have a better outdoor team than indoors, I will be very disappointed if this team does not finish in the top ten at the NCAA Championships." As has been the custom over the past several years the Ephmen will be challenged for New England honors by MIT and NESCAC rivals Tufts and Bates. The Ephs, however, have won the last two New England titles. "One of the keys behind our success is our large roster," said White. "We have 72 men and 64 women in our track family and we have seniors like Jamie Kingsbury who do not have a lot of natural talent, but give us everything they have every day which translates into the entire team getting the most it can out of each practice." Sprinters Senior captain John Symanski returns to lead a talented and deep Eph sprinting corps that owns several Eph records to date and is hungry for more. Symanski owns two Eph indoor marks (55m = 6.44 and the 200m = 21.65) and he was 1/100th of a second off of the 400m Eph mark. He is also a member of the Ephs all-time best 4 X 400 relay (3:16.89). Symanski has led the Ephs in scoring each of the last three seasons and the last two years has been voted the New England Track Athlete of the Year by the region's coaches. "He is a man among boys in NESCAC and New England," said White. Two other seniors, Drew Raab and George Rodriguez, have contributed mightily to the Ephs success over the last three years. "Drew would be a star on any other team in New England, but here he is running behind John Symanski," said Eph head coach Ralph White. "He has great range as a sprinter. He can score at 55m to 400m." Rodriguez's strength is at the slightly longer distances – more in the 300m to 800m range. All three of the seniors are members of the Eph 4 X 400 record-setting relay along with sophomore Andrew Arons. "George may be the most dedicated athlete on the team," said White.Known as "Skinny" on the Eph team, Arons is known throughout New England as the region's top newcomer in sprints a year ago. He's best suited for the 200m or 400m. Two first years that will add to the Ephs' incredible depth in the sprints include Lithuanian Deividas Seferis and Alex Hoerman who hails from New Hampshire. "Deividas does not have great credentials, but I consider him to be a diamond in the rough," said White. "He can shock a lot of people this year because he is improving every day he trains with our older sprinters." "Alex is a very gutsy runner who is tough and hard-working," said White. "Tough kids do very well in our program." And there are even more sprinters to consider. Sophomore Elijah Weeks from the football team is expected to be in the mix this winter as well. "Elijah is very quick with a lot of raw talent," said White. "He's ready to improve a lot as the season progresses." Mid-Distance Another area in which the Ephs boast a great deal of depth is in the 800m to 1,500m races. Sophomore Chris Beeler.is coming off an injury-plagued year as a first year and is ready to make a name for himself. "Chris was banged up last year, but he's as good a half miler as we've had in this program," said White. Mike Davitian is one of a quartet of experienced and talented juniors. "Mike improved greatly last season both indoors and outdoors and was a dominant force in New England and an NCAA qualifier'," said White. Bill Ference is a renowned team leader and a talented runner from 400m to 3,00m; Tyler Gray was second outdoors in the New England 800m and third indoors in the 600m and Sean Hyland is poised for a breakout year according to White. Sophomore Mack Brickley also appears to be on the verge of making a name for himself in the 800m or 1,500m as well. From this group White expects to be able to field a nationally competitive distance medley relay team. Distance All you need to know about the Eph distance corps is that Neal Holtschulte returns. This kid personifies the word tough and never fails to deliver his absolute best every day. "We call him Big Neal, not because he is large, but because he always gives us a big effort in the big races," said White. White remembers last year's New England Championships when Holtschulte, the injured and non-competing runner, put down the video camera and ran in the 3,000m and finished second. "That gave our team a real spark and carried us to the New England title," said White. "Neal is all about doing his best and doing whatever he can for the team." Holtschulte is coming into the winter season fresh off his win at the Div. 3 cross country championships where he defeated 210 competitors and became only the 9th male to earn All-America honors four years in a row. Holtschulte is the first four-time All-American at Williams. It's not all Holtschulte all the time in distance races for the Ephs though, as he does have some experienced rand talented runners working with him. Sophomores Morgan Seybert and Grant Burgess fared well a year ago in their first year in intercollegiate competition return to lead an experienced group that includes Andy Stevenson, Corey Levin, James Clayton and Colin Carroll. White also expects several first years to test the returnees at both mid distance and distance. High Jump Senior captain Markus Burns who was an NCAA qualifier a year ago is back to make a run at the Eph school record and compete at and score at the NCAAs. "Markus has the ability to become an All-American," said White. Long Jump Junior Brandon Mirach is the best long jumper on the squad. He was the outdoor New England Championships runner-up last spring. Sophomore Joe Song appears to be on the verge of establishing himself as a consistent scorer this season as he posted a third at the outdoor New England Championships last spring. Triple Jump Mirach and Burns are the two triple jumpers that White expects to be able to compete nationally. Both Burns and Mirach have placed in the top three in New England last year – Burns was second indoors and Mirach 3rd outdoors. White expects that both will meet the NCAA standard this coming season. Sophomore David Kessell will add depth. Weight ThrowNCAA Div. 3 discus record holder, senior captain, Dan Austin is expected to shoulder the burden in both the weight throw and the shot put. "Dan is such a good athlete that we would be crazy not to use him in the indoor throwing events," said White. "This training indoors will make him a three-event threat in the spring." Shot Put Sophomore Drew De Salvo will complement Austin in the shot put in attempting to secure points for the Ephs. A football player in the fall, De Salvo has blossomed as a shot putter. "He finished 3rd last spring outdoors at NESCACs and we think he is ready to make even more progress this winter," said White. Pentathlon Sophomore Joe Song will be counted on to replace the graduated Jeff Ossinger as one of the top multi-eventers in New England. First year Eric Jonash, a football QB, will also be in the mix. A break here and there and the Ephs might just find themselves battling for a spot on the victory stand at the NCAAs. Coaching the Eph team again this year is a staff that White (who has coached in NCAA Div. 1, 2 & 3) calls the best coaching staff of any team in any division in the college ranks. "Our coaching staff is second to none and I mean even compared o the highest levels of Div, 1 and we cover all of the events," said White. "It's very important that our staff has the ability to coach everyone in every event with 130+ kids in the program between the two teams." Former Eph stalwart Matt Campanelli handles the throws and weight training, Dick Farley works with the hurdlers and pole vaulters, Pete Farwell, Karina Johnson, Kathleen Newton and Dusty Lopez train the distance runners, Gavin O'Neal will coach the jumpers and Gabe Sanders will assist with the jumpers. All of the above also serve in the same capacity with the women's team. "It's really all one team here at Williams – men and women – two very supportive teams and one talented coaching staff to guide them," said White. The Ephs' 2006 indoor season will begin on January 8th when they travel to Dartmouth College and their lone home meet of the year will be on January 21st when MIT, RPI and Westfield State visit at noon. |
LOADED.
That's the best word to describe the Williams women's indoor track and
field team in 2006.
Ralph White's Ephs have won the last three New England indoor titles and the Ephs have yet to enter their full team in either one of the championships. Last winter white's Ephwomen set six school records. The Ephs return five team members who earned All-America honors last winter in Caroline Cretti, Katie Fulton, Katie Howard, Veronica Ivey and Carrie Plitt. "Having such a strong, deep team allows us to plot out our season from the very beginning and pick the spots where we want each person or relay to compete," said White. A year ago White's Eph finished fourth at the NCAA Championships. This season will be considered less than satisfactory if the Ephs do not finish at least in the top four at the NCAAs. White, in his fifth year as head coach of the Ephs, has the top two returning sprinters in New England back to build a team around. Senior captain Katie Fulton and sophomore Carrie Plitt were a dynamic one-two punch a year ago and appear poised to repeat their efforts this winter. Plitt won both the 55m and 200m titles at the New England Championships a year ago and Fulton was second in both events. Fulton set the Eph record in the 200m (25.50). Junior Katie Howard and sophomore Veronica Ivey will also be on hand to provide talented depth. Howard was a member of the Eph 4 X 400 relay that finished fifth in 2005, earning All-America honors and is a threat in the 400m and/or the 600m. Howard won the New England 600m race last winter and set the Eph record in the 400m (58.30). Ivey posted a strong year in her collegiate debut season and after a strong outdoor campaign appears to be on the verge of making more noise this winter. "Veronica was the fastest first year in New England last season and she learned a great deal about how to run in the spring season so I expect a really big year from her." Mid Distance Sophomore Lissy Robie and first year Heather Bemis will lead the Eph mid distance runners. "Lissy had a major breakthrough last year with a second place finish in the 1,500m at NESCACs outdoors and she was a strong contributor on relays," said White. "Heather impressed me as a true competitor when I saw her in high school," said White. "She will be a factor from the first meet on from 600m to 1,000m." White is looking for at least two-three more runners to emerge from a large contingent of candidates at this distance, including a host of first years. Distance Leading the Eph distance runners is senior captain Carline Cretti, who according to White, "is the best female track distance runner ever at Williams." Cretti was second at the NCAAs in the1,500m a year ago, was a member of the distance medley relay team that finished 3rd and won the 3,000m at the prestigious Reebok Boston Indoor Games. She also set the Eph 3,000m record at the New York Armory Collegiate Invitational by finishing in 9:42. She later lowered the 3,000m mark to 9:33.83. Cretti was the first female runner to win the New England NCAA cross country qualifying race four years in a row and she earned All-America honors three times. Sophomore Liz Gleason who is coming off a strong showing in cross country after having an injury-plagued winter season a year ago is expected to be a major factor this season. "With the strength of our cross country team, 2nd at NCAAS this fall and winning the title the year before, we have quite a pool of talent to draw competitors from," said White. Jumps Senior Kristin Moss will anchor the Eph high jumpers. Moss won the New Enlgand Div. 3 indoor title last season at 5' 3.75" and at the New England Div. 1 championships outdoors in the spring she went 5' 5". "Kristen might just be the best all-around athlete on our team," said White. "She can score in all of the jumps and even earn All-New England honors in the 55m hurdles." Junior Caroline Doctor, school record holder in the triple jump (39' 2.5" outdoors) also returns. "Caroline is one of those athletes who always does better when the competition is better – she is a big meet performer," said White. Moss and Doctor will lead the way in the long jump as well, but White feels first year Lindsay Millert can also contribute. Miller is also a hurdler and a competitive shot putter and will be the Ephs' top pentahtlete. Weight Throw/Shot Put The Ephs return four NCAA qualfiiers. A trio of juniors, Anna Morrison, Abelee Esparza and Alex Phillips, will lead the weight throwers.and senior captain Katie Krause will head up the shot putters. "Katie had a great fall working out and leading the team and I expect that we will see a huge improvement in her performance this season," said White. Morrison's specialty indoors is the shot put. Esparza came on strong at the end of last season and Phillips has the ability to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the weight throw. Coaching the Eph team again this year is a staff that White (who has coached in NCAA Div. 1, 2 & 3) calls the best coaching staff of any team in any division in the college ranks. "Our coaching staff is second to none and I mean even compared to the highest levels of Div. 1 and we cover all of the events," "It's very important that our staff has the ability to coach everyone in every event as we have 130+ kids in the program between the two teams." Former Eph stalwart Matt Campanelli handles the throws and weight training, Dick Farley works with the hurdlers and pole vaulters, Pete Farwell, Karina Johnson, Kathleen Newton and Dusty Lopez train the distance runners, Gavin O'Neal will coach the jumpers and Gabe Sanders will assist with the jumpers. All of the above also serve in the same capacity with the women's team. "It's really all one team here at Williams – men and women – two very supportive teams and one talented coaching staff to guide them," said White. The Ephs' 2006 indoor season will begin on January 8th when they travel to Dartmouth College and their lone home meet of the year will be on January 21st when MIT, RPI and Westfield State visit at noon.
|
Ephs Surprise all at All New Englands (5/14/05)
| Men's Latest | Women's Latest |
| Having achieved victory in the two major
team competitions of the outdoor season, the men’s track and field
team headed up to the University of New Hampshire to chase personal
bests and national qualifying marks against top Div. I, II, and III
competition at the New England Intercollegiate Athletic Association
championships. The Ephs ended up posting a solid team finish, however,
despite holding many athletes back from entering individual events,
collecting 45 points overall to capture 6th place. The University of
Rhode Island, Dartmouth, and the University of Connecticut took up the
top three spots in the overall standings, with the Ephs posting the
top Div. III total of the day.
As usual, the 10,000-meter run led off the morning, and two Ephs braved the stiff competition and quick early pace to post strong finishes in the grueling event. Andy Stevenson ’07 hung off the back of the lead pack through a quick 5:04 opening mile and 10:10 two-mile, but still managed to hang on for an 11th place finish in a personal-best time of 32:33. Corey Levin ’08, running on tired legs in his third straight 10,000-meter effort, suffered from the fast first 5,000-meters more than expected, but still collected himself for an 18th place finish . The distance events continued to dominate the morning lineup, with the sprinters having completed most of their qualifying the day before and waiting until the afternoon to contest their finals. As the lone Eph entrant in the 5,000-meter run, Neal Holtschulte ’06 benefited from a competitive field in which several Dartmouth athletes shot straight to the front and began clicking off a national-qualifying pace. Holtschulte strode back in the pack for the first several miles, allowing the lone Dartmouth leader to tire himself in the wind, before setting off in pursuit over the last half-mile. He waited a bit too long to make his move however, as miler Joel Anderson of Bates possessed the superior kick, barely moving by Holtschulte in the homestretch for a half-second victory. His mark of 14:37 provisionally qualifies him for NCAA’s, so the distance standout will have to wait and see if he can contest this event in addition to the 10,000, in which he already has an auto-mark. The sprinters finally took to the track for the 4x100 meter relay, taking home one of the two Eph event victories of the afternoon and improving upon their NCAA qualifying mark with a 41.39 clocking. The squad, composed of lead-off leg Andrew Arons ’08, Drew Raab ’06, Max Mokgosi ’07, and anchor John Symanski ’06 built a solid lead through the first three legs before Symanski held off several strong charges over the last 100-meters to claim a near half-second margin of victory. The sprinters also posted a solid-provisional NCAA mark in the 1600-meter relay, as the team of Raab, George Rodriguez ’06, Arons, and Symanski blazed to a 3:15.29 mark, just barely getting out-leaned but finish in the runner-up spot. The time puts them right on the bubble for NCAA’s but the time represents a huge season’s best mark and strong finish in a very competitive field. Mike Davitian ’07 continued to shock all of his teammates, coaches, and the rest of the NESCAC by setting a three-and-a-half second personal best to take third place in the 1500-meter run and all but punch his ticket to nationals with a provisional NCAA mark of 3:52.88. One month ago the sophomore had never broken four minutes for the 1500, and now with his blistering kick he stands poised to challenge for All-American status at NCAA’s in a few weeks. Bill Ference ’07 failed to advance out of Friday’s preliminary heats, but he may give an NCAA qualifying mark one last shot next weekend at the ECAC championships. Stephen Wills ’07 went for another hard 3000-meter steeplechase in his third attempt in three weeks to get himself a ticket to NCAA’s. Having trained only intermittently as he battled several injuries over the period, Wills just lacked the strength of his competitors over the final two laps and closed out his season with a 9:27, good enough for tenth overall. He did manage to clear every barrier on the final lap however, to the delight off all spectators. Dan Austin ’06 collected the other Eph event victory of the afternoon, taking the discus title with his mark of 186 feet 5 inches. He also competed in the hammer throw, launching the ball 174.5 feet for a sixth place finish and an improvement on his provisional NCAA-mark in the event. Co-captain Caleb Bliss also competed in the discus, taking tenth overall with a 147.5 foot effort. With most Ephs done for the season, the NCAA contingent just about tripled in size this weekend with many new athletes punching their tickets to the championships, hosted by Wartburg College (IA) from May 26th to 28th. Holtschulte, Davitian, Austin, Arons, Mokgosi, Symanski, Rodriguez, and Raab will most likely compose the squad for NCAA’s. Go Ephs! |
The All-New England Championships hosted by
UNH offered the Ephs a chance to test their skills against some
excellent Div I and II competition. In difficulty of qualifying
standards for the Ephs, All- New Englands is second only to Div III
Nationals, ensuring that every event will be full of excellent
competitors. Against very good competition and in less than ideal
weather the women from Williamstown certainly held their own. As a
team the Ephs were the first Div III School, placing seventh overall
with 46 points, while Boston College placed first with 117 points.
"I am so pleased with our team as they run, jump, throw their hearts out," said Head Coach Ralph White. "It was nice to finally get a meet where it did not rain and we took advantage of it. To do as well as we did in only a few events (because of classes on Friday) is a tribute to the talent and hard work of our squad. I am very hard to please but it seems that each week we exceed expectations". One of the day's highlights was the women’s 4x400 relay. The women ran a terrific time of 3:55.0, which puts them in good position to go to nationals. The quartet of Caitlin Hanley ’07, Katie Howard ’07, tri-captain Kali Moody ’05 and Veronica Ivey ’08 each ran terrific legs on their way to a season best performance. Moody ran a great leg after running a solid open 800M a few hours before. Although the rain held off throughout Saturday, cold temperature and strong winds made for less than ideal racing conditions. Katie Fulton ’06 ran a season best in the trials of the 100M, but the wind picked up for finals and Fulton failed to qualify for nationals. Fulton will have one last attempt this week at the ECAC Championships in the 100M as well as the 200M. In the field events, tri-captain Anna Swisher ‘05 had a terrific day in the shot put, placing fourth overall with a season best and a provisional qualifying mark. Swisher was joined by teammate Anna Morrison ‘07 for a third and fourth place finish in the discus. Abelee Esparza ’07 had a huge throw in the hammer finally surpassing the 150 mark. Esparza’s mark provisionally qualifies her for nationals. Kristen Moss ’07 continued to improve on her high jump. Moss improved her place on the national list, but will have to jump higher later this week to ensure a trip to Nationals. A few Ephs will join Fulton and Moss at Springfield for the ECAC Championships for one last shot at a National mark, but the majority closed their season this weekend. Caroline Cretti ’06 (10k, 5k) and Joyia Chadwick ’05 (heptathalon) remain the only Ephs to surpass the automatic qualifying standard for their events, but others are in very good standing to go including, Morrison (discus), Caroline Doctor ‘07(triple jump) and the women’s 4x400. Those Ephs who have earned a provisional mark, but not the auto will have to wait until next week to see if the will get a chance to compete at Wartburg. |
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Ephs Dominate DIII New Englands (5/7/05)
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Men and Women Take NESCAC Championship (4/30/2005)
| Men's Latest | Women's Latest |
| Before the first athletes stepped off the
bus on Saturday morning in Waterville, Maine, the Ephs already had an
air of confidence about them. Having come from a substantial pre-meet
deficit to take the New England Div. III Indoor title, men’s track
and field knew that overcoming this weekend’s obstacle, and
capturing their fifth straight NESCAC title, lay well within their
grasp. A decidedly less dreary than expected morning greeted the early
risers, with the meet, hosted by Colby College, set to kick off well
before noon to accommodate both the men’s and women’s
championships simultaneously. The Ephs handily defeated all of their
rivals, tallying a whopping 198.5 points for a much larger than
expected margin of victory. Tufts captured runner-up honors once again
with their 135.5 point total, followed by Middlebury with 124 and
expected title contender Bates with 103. Bowdoin rounded out the top
five with 63 points.
The Ephmen started the day on the track with the longest event of the meet, the 10,000-meter run. Corey Levin ’08 and Andy Stevenson ’07 composed the Williams contingent in the 25-lap race, and both ran tactically smart races, picking off fading runner and closing hard to beat all of the competitors with whom they had packed up for most of the race. Levin crossed the line in seventh place with a 32:34 clocking, while Stevenson followed close behind in ninth with his 32:44, both significant personal bests. The field events also got started early in the day, with Markus Burns ’06 capturing the high jump title with his leap of 1.92 meters and taking third in the triple jump with a mark of 13.52 meters. Branden Mirach ’07 also contributed important points in the jumps, placing fourth overall in the triple jump and second in the long jump. Joe Song ’08 and Kyle McDermott ’05 both joined Mirach as scorers in the long jump, claiming fifth and sixth place overall with their leaps. In other field events Jeff Ossinger ’05 launched himself to fourth place overall in the pole vault his mark of 3.82 meters. Next up on the track came the 3000-meter steeplechase, broken up into two heats because of the number of athletes qualified. In the first heat Grant Burgess ’08 and Jared Oubre ’08 both ran smart races, with Burgess pouring on the pace over the last lap to set a huge personal best of 10:00, eventually coming out to ninth place overall. In the second heat Stephen Wills ’07 switched up his normally conservative racing style by shooting into the lead right from the gun. He faced a very competitive field, and for seven-and-a-quarter of the seven-and-a-half laps of the event Wills glided over the barriers with ease, on pace for a national qualifying time and battling eventual winner Mike Page of Amherst. Wills unexpectedly clipped his back foot on the third to last hurdle and all of a sudden he found himself sprawled out on the track, taking a hard fall and scraping up his legs. He somehow struggled over the water barrier, barely able to keep his feet, and fell to the track once more in the home straight as he landed over the final barrier. The gutsy racer ended up fifth overall and will surely bounce back next week to post a fast time. The sprinters got their day started in earnest by blazing through the 400-meter relay, gapping the field by a full second at the finish line, and posting a national-qualifier and meet record of 41.71 seconds. Andrew Arons ’08, Max Mokgosi ’07, Drew Raab ’06, and John Symanski ’06 made up the victorious squad, and all four continued their outstanding efforts with further scoring later in the day. Symanski claimed first place in the 100-meter dash, dipping just under 11 seconds, while Mokgosi sprinted to a surprising second-place finish in the short dash. Arons placed sixth in the 100 and collected a big second-place finish in the 200-meter dash, coming closer to cracking the 22 second barrier with his 22.09 mark in an event also won by Symanski in a national-qualifying 21.80 seconds. Raab placed fourth overall in the one-lap dash with a time of 49.45 seconds. With the throwing events well underway and many Ephs exceeding their expected performances the meet started to get more and more out of reach for the rest of the NESCAC field. Andrew DeSalvo ’08 continued his spectacular spring by setting a two-foot personal best in the shot put, launching it out to 14.19 meters for fifth place overall. Dan Austin ’06 and co-captain Caleb Bliss ’05 finished in the points as well, taking fourth and sixth respectively. DeSalvo also placed sixth in the javelin while Austin placed third in the hammer. Many Ephs who had finished their days on the track crowded around the throwing area to watch Austin and Bliss compete in their primary event. Head Coach Ralph White said, “Once each of them get one good throw in I’ll be able to relax and be confident we’ve got the meet under control.” After Austin launched his first throw past all other competitors he said, “That one wasn’t very good for Dan, but it will win the event.” He launched the disc out to 57.91 meters, a remarkable feat considering Bliss’ runner-up toss of 48.50 meters also qualified him for nationals. Alex Matthews ’07 also grabbed a point in eighth place overall with his 42.33 toss. Speaking of the 1500-meter run, Sean Hyland ’07 said, “Mike [Davitian ‘07] really set the tone for the meet with his victory, he got everybody pumped up. All of the athletes from other teams were coming up to me asking who it was.” Davitian ran a perfect race for him, sitting as far back as tenth place with only 300-meters to go before launching into his kick, taking the lead by the homestretch, and running away from the field in 3:59. Bill Ference ’07 sprinted down the final straight into fifth place with a 4:02 clocking. In the 800, Tyler Gray ’07 ran away from the field in the second of three heats, winning his section by a full second in 1:56.4, and capturing fourth place points with his time. Chris Beeler ’08 also showed outstanding form, taking the lead on the backstretch of last lap before finishing second overall with a 1:55.6. The day wrapped up with the 5000-meter run in which Neal Holtschulte ’06 cruised to a second place finish after an automatic national qualifying 30:18 in the 10,000 two days earlier at the Penn Relays. The Ephs also ran solid on the last few relays of the day, claiming third in the 4x400 and second in the DMR. Another NESCAC title, and another group of Ephmen rose to the occasion on Saturday. The season will conclude for most next weekend at the Div. III New England Championships, while some Ephs still look forward to the NCAA championships about a month down the road. |
The women’s track and field team traveled
to Colby knowing that they were expected to do well, but they did not
allow themselves to become complacent. The day was full of personal
and season records as the women went on to win their fifth straight
NESCAC title; their 13th in the twenty year history of the
competition. At the end of the day the Ephs amassed a total of 211
points, 84.5 points ahead of Tufts in second. Middlebury was third
with 98 points.
“I am very happy with today,” said Head Coach Ralph White as the team boarded the bus to head back home. “Great performances by everyone, everyone went out and really competed today”. While the women were expected to do well, the men’s competition was expected to be very close, so the Ephwomen all wore shirts supporting a member of the men’s team. “We knew that if everyone competed the way the have all season, we would do well,” said tri-captain Kali Moody. “We wanted the guys to know that even though we were competing, we were still out there cheering them on”. In end, the men also came away with a win, making this the fifth consecutive year that Ephmen and women have swept the team titles. It’s really a tribute to the talent of our athletes and the excellence of our coaching staff,” said White. “This is one of the best coaching staffs I have worked with. They are very knowledgeable and really prepare their athletes to perform their best toward the end of the season. For the Ephs it was really a team effort, with every event group contributing to the team title. The Ephs were especially dominate off the track with at least one competitor placing in the top three in six of the seven field events entered, which included an impressive two through five finish in the shot put. Throwers Katie Krause ’06, Alex Phillips ’07 and tri-captain Anna Swisher ’05 were expecting to take the second, third and fourth, but a six inch pr from Anna Morrison ’07 moved her out of eighth and into the top five. Morrison and Swisher came back later that day for a one-two finish in the discus after top seed Kelly Godsey fouled all her preliminary throws and failed to make it into the finals. Swisher also took third in the hammer with a season best throw. Kristen Moss ’06 contributed to much of that success with a second place finish in the high jump and triple jump as well as a third place finish in the long jump. Teammate Caroline Doctor ’07 was in first place in the long jump until Lee- Jay Henry from Amherst out jumped Doctor by inches on her last jump, putting Doctor in second. But Doctor came back for a first place finish in the triple jump, while Henry placed third. Katie Fulton ’06 had a spectacular day in the sprints with a first place finish in the 100M, 200M as well as anchoring the winning 4x100 relay team with Halley Smith ’08, Veronica Ivey ’08 and Jasmine Smith ‘05. Fulton received the baton in the back of the pack, but burst onto the final straight-a-way and passed three or four teams to ensure the first place finish. Ivey ’08 had a terrific NESCAC debut taking first in the open 400, third in the two and second in the 4x400 with Caitlin Hanley ’07, Afton Johnson ’05 and Katie Howard ’07. Hanley was also third in the open 400. In addition to the 4x400, Johnson finished her last NESCAC Championship with a first place finish in the 400 hurdles just in front of teammate Julie O’Donnell ’05 who placed second. O’Donnell and Johnson also scored points in the 100 high hurdles with second and fourth place finishes. Tri-captain Kali Moody ’05 continue to show that she is one of the best 800 runners in the league with a second place finish in the open 800. She later came back and ran a terrific leg in the 4x 800. First year Lissy Robie ’08 made an impressive move in the 1500 that earned her second place and a two second pr. The pr’s continue to fall as Mallory Harlin ’08 ignored the rain and ran a thirty second pr in the 5k. Her time of 18:22 was good enough for eighth place. All three women in the 10k placed in the top eight and ran a personal best. Lisa Davenport ’07 ran thirty second negative split in her second 5k and had a tremendous kick her final lap to garner fifth place points. Susie Theroux ’05 was right with Davenport for most of the race and finished just behind her in seventh. Both Theroux and Davenport had over a minute pr. Liz Gleason ’08 ran an excellent time, placing eighth in her first ever 10k. These performances are a great start to the championship season. For some Ephs this marked the close of their 2005 season, but others will use this momentum and these great performances to carry them further into the season. Those who have qualified will travel back to Maine to compete at the Div III New England Championships hosted by Bates where the Ephs will look to repeat as the team champions. |
UMass Lowell: Davis Invitational: April 16th, 2005
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Williams Track and Field at UMASS Lowell
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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College men's and women's track & field coach Ralph White and his teams have stepped up to the line to yet again. This time the Ephs are not racing the clock, but helping start a running program at the Rugambwa Secondary School in Bukoga, Tanzania.
The call for help came in the form of an e-mail from former Eph track & field performer Janna Rearick '02 who is now a biology teacher at the Tanzanian school. Rearick had spent time in Tanzania in a Winter Study program her junior year and decided she wanted to go back to Tanzania teach after Williams.
"Janna told me that she was trying to start a running program for the kids at her school, but only two of the kids had shoes to run in," said White. "The running program she is starting is for both boys and girls and getting girls involved in sports in Tanzania is a new idea,"
White told his Ephs at a recent team meeting that if they had any old running or track shoes that they wanted to donate to drop them by his office. "I figured we'd get maybe a dozen or two dozen pairs at the most," said White. "The next day I had 252 pairs of running and track shoes in my office and I had to move them to the meeting room next door to my office. We got another 40 the next day and they just keep coming. When we finish packing I'm guessing we'll be over 350 pairs. I'm very pleased at the team's response to Janna's request. I know Janna and the kids at her school will be very excited when these boxes show up."
Williams Men and Women Capture Little Three Title (4/23/05)
| Men's Latest | Women's Latest |
| The beautiful weather that has graced the
Berkshires for the past two weeks decided to take a break on Saturday,
and the rain fell steadily throughout the afternoon as men’s track
and field competed at the Little Three Championships. As the Ephs
pulled up to the Amherst track and field complex, they realized that
the conditions would definitely play a factor, and tried to focus on
staying warm and dry while they waited for their events. In the end,
the Ephmen captured the victory, tallying 150 points to the
Cardinals’ 126.50 and the Lord Jeffs’ 89.50. The meet only takes
into account the top two finishers from each school in the final
score, taking away the Eph’s depth advantage but overall making the
meet more competitive.
The overcast, rainy conditions provided a little extra drama from the first event, as the Ephs failed to pass the slippery baton around and got disqualified from the 400-meter relay. The sprint crew rebounded, however, with John Symanski ’06, Max Mokgosi ’07, and Andrew Arons ’08 sweeping the top three spots in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Mokgosi and Arons had especially solid performances considering the rain saturating the track, clocking 11.24 and 11.28 in the 100, while Symanski took home the half-lap title with a 22.65 mark. Mile-relay anchor Drew Raab ’06 made his season debut in the open 400-meter dash, sprinting across the line in first by covering the single lap in 50.62 seconds. The 3000-meter steeplechasers stepped on the track next, already damp from the precipitation but still not looking forward to the cold splashes sure to emanate from each of the seven water jumps. Stephen Wills ’07 set a conservative pace early on but controlled the race from the front, a superior tactic in the hurdling event due to the tangling of bodies that can occur when a large pack tries to cross the water barrier as one. He continued to pour on the pace throughout the race, and ended up crossing the line in 9:55, well ahead of the runner-up finisher. Steeplechase aficionados Ross Smith ’05 and Sean O’Brien ’05 both competed in their last collegiate event, posting solid marks of their own by stopping the clock at 10:23 and 11:00 for 5th and 8th place. After the shortest of all the hurdle events in which Jeff Ossinger ’05 claimed runner-up honors, the top Eph middle distance runners took their places on the starting line to contest the 1500-meter run. With many of the long-distance runners trying the shorter event to rest for the NESCAC Championships, the field spilled over into two heats. In the first heat the pack came through two laps at a fairly pedestrian 2:15 pace, with a large bunch of Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams runners crowded together. The pace started to pick up over the next three-hundred meters, but no one separated themselves just yet. Morgan Seybert ’08 said of the last lap, “Because the stands are in the infield we couldn’t see the backstretch, but all of a sudden we saw Mike [Davitian ’07] flying around the final curve with a huge lead.” He blew down the homestretch, extending his lead to the line and taking home the title in a new personal best 4:03. Bill Ference ’07 followed him to the finish, capturing fifth place in 4:10. The performance of the day, although certainly not unexpected, came from Dan Austin ’06 in the discus. Making his season debut after two and a half years of fighting injuries, Austin hurled the disc out to 56.58 meters; setting a new personal best, school record, meet record, and NCAA automatic qualifying throw. He has already left his mark on the Williams campus in the form of an orange fence erected at Weston Field in order to keep other track athletes from wandering into harm’s way during his practice sessions. The NCAA Div. III national runner-up as a first-year, Austin has set his sights much higher this season, and aspires to qualify for and compete at the USA Outdoor Championships this summer. He also placed first in the hammer throw with his mark of 47.12 meters. Co-captain Caleb Bliss ’05 also had an extremely productive day in the throwing circles, taking to the ring in the hammer, shot, and discus. Bliss claimed top-three finishes in each event, winning the shot put title with his toss of 12.91 meters, taking second in the discus with a hurl of 43.03 meters, and placing third in the hammer. Branden Mirach ’07 continued his streak of solid spring performances, leaping 6.82 meters to take first place in the long jump. Kyle McDermott ’05 followed close behind, touching 6.29 meters in the sand, good enough for second place points. As the day wore on and the clouds refused to relinquish their dreary hold on the spring afternoon, the Ephs still had to compete in several more running events, including the 800-meter run and the longest event of the day, the 5000-meter run. In the two-lapper the Ephmen got into a tight and competitive race, with a large pack of athletes sticking together through the 600-meter mark. Third place finisher Tyler Gray ’07 said, “I got boxed in with about 200-meters to go, just when I was ready to start kicking for the finish. I had a great kick in the last straightaway but I wanted to go earlier.” Gray nipped Sean Hyland ’07 at the line, crossing in 1:58.53 to Hyland’s fourth place effort of 1:58.96. In the 5000-meter run, the Ephs stepped on the track with different goals in mind for the twelve-and-a-half lap effort. Buoyed by an outstanding cheering section of competitors who had completed their events, Andy Stevenson ’07 ran a controlled first two miles, staying right on the heels of two Wesleyan athletes, before closing the last mile in under 4:50. He went a little too late to have a chance at the victory, but still claimed second-place in a personal best time of 15:35. Morgan Seybert ’08 took sixth overall, just getting back into racing after battling sickness for the past few weeks. Next Saturday the Ephs will travel to Maine to compete in the 2005 NESCAC Track and Field Championships hosted by Colby College. The premier event of the outdoor season, the Ephmen will look to overcome another challenge from a very strong Tufts squad and defend their conference title. Go Ephs! *Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=8568 Results: http://www.nesportstiming.com/results/LITTLE305RESULTS.htm |
Arriving at Amherst the Ephs stepped off
the bus and into the rain, wind and cold, but the adverse weather did
not affect the athletes as the Ephwomen captured their 20th
consecutive Little Three Track and Field Championship. Little Three
marks the beginning of the championship season and if the results from
Saturday are any indication of future success, then the Ephwomen look
to do well in the postseason.
Williams outscored second place Amherst by almost 70 points with a score of 180, while Wesleyan finished third. For some athletes this was their last chance to get a qualifying mark, while others were trying to improve their postseason standing. In the end, it was a great day of performances with many postseason qualifying marks as well as personal bests. The 70-point spread is even more impressive considering the non-traditional scoring method used at the meet. In order to emphasize team depth instead of a team’s dominance in a few events, only two competitors from each team count toward the team score. This method allows a team to enter anyone in an event to ensure points. Nevertheless, the Ephs competed well and came away with a convincing victory. “I was quite proud of both of our teams,” said Williams Head Coach Ralph White. “No one complained about the weather and competed hard all day. It is nice to be able to win the Little 3 title and a tribute to our team members to dominate the way they did. We saw many personal best and the best is yet to come. Team spirit was high and the victory should help us prepare for the big meets ahead”. The Ephs certainly did dominate, beginning with the sprints. Neither Amherst nor Wesleyan have sprint-oriented programs, choosing to focus more on the mid-distance and distance events, which did not give the Ephwomen much competition in the shorter events. The Ephs swept first-place finishes in the 4x100, 100, 200 and 400. Katie Fulton ’06 had a full day, anchoring the 4x100 in addition to taking first in the individual 100 and 200. The impressive finishes did not end with the sprints, the women took first in 13 out of the 18 even after scratching their top high jumpers due to the weather. It was not until the 800 that another team placed a runner in first. Ginger Polich from Amherst crossed the line just 0.4 seconds in front of tri-captain Kali Moody ’05 who crossed the line in a time of 2:17.97. Moody was understandably tired after competing a little over an hour in a very competitive 1500M race. The 1500M proved to be one of the showcase events of the day, featuring four All-Americans as well as other top runners from all three schools. Distance standout Caroline Cretti ’06 took an early lead followed closely by Amherst’s top distance runner, Carter Hamill. Moody, an All-American in the 800, was a close third and first-year standout Lissy Robie ’08 was not far behind. Cretti did not let up as the laps went by beginning her kick as she went into the last 400. Cretti’s final time of 4:39.34 is a personal-best as well as fast enough to provisionaly qualify for nationals. Hamill finished in 4:42, three seconds ahead of Moody. Robie crossed the line in 4:48, a personal best by over five seconds. In the 3000M steeplechase Danner Hickman ’05 first-place finish. Running the majority of the race out in front by herself, Hickman still finished in a time of 11:29 is a season best and only nine seconds off a provisional qualifying mark for nationals. Laura Ellison ’07 placed third overall in a time of 12:05; a thirteen-second pr. The Ephs continued their success in the hurdling events. Julie O’Donnell had a tremendous day in the hurdles, taking first in both the 100M high hurdles and the 400 intermediate hurdles. O’Donnell was joined by fellow seniors Joyia Chadwick ’05 and Afton Johnson ’05 for a one-two-three sweep in the high hurdles. Johnson also collected second-place points in the intermediate hurdles. The Ephs continued their dominance with a terrific showing in the field events. Chadwick found herself part of another one-through-three sweep in the long jump. Chadwick placed first with a jump of 5.38m, followed by Kristin Moss ’06 (5.28m) and Caroline Doctor (5.18m). Doctor and Moss continued their success over to the triple jump with, taking first and second with jumps of 11.59m and 11.16m. Tri-captain Anna Swisher ‘05 proved to be a triple threat in throwing circle, taking first in the discus, shot put and hammer throw. While throwing well in the discus and shot, Swisher threw a season best 43.51m in the hammer. Swisher was not alone, however, as the throwers continued the team theme of sweeps. Alex Phillips ’07 and Katie Krause ’06 followed Swisher, taking second and third in the shot. The Ephs took the next three spots behind Swisher in the discus with Anna Morrison ’07, Abelee Esparza ’07 and Krause taking second, third and fourth. Esparza was also second in the hammer throw. For some members of the team this was their last meet of season and although the weather was less than ideal, they rose to the occasion and performed very well across all event groups. Many Ephs will continue on next week, traveling to Colby to compete at the NESCAC Championships where they will attempt to defend their title. *Source: http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=8569 Results: http://www.nesportstiming.com/results/LITTLE305RESULTS.htm |
Williams Relays: April 9th, 2005
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Williams Track and Field Dominates Williams Relays
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