Men’s Indoor Track Places Sixth at New England Champs
Issue   |   Wed, 02/22/2012 - 02:12
Photo courtesy of Steve Dao
Ben Scheetz ’12 (left) and Matt Melton ’14 raced for the fifth-place 4x800 relay team.

The men’s indoor track team won three events en route to a sixth-place finish at the New England Div. III Championships. Twenty-four schools competed at Springfield on Saturday, with Bates placing first.

Senior Ben Scheetz won two events, finishing with the best time in the 400-meter dash and the 1,000. He won by just over a second in the 400, but the 1,000 was a much tighter race, as the runner-up from Bowdoin crossed the line just 0.18 seconds behind Scheetz. Six runners bested the previous facility record of 2:32.18, but Scheetz and the runner-up were the only competitors to finish under 2:30.

Matt Melton ’14 earned the Jeff’s third win in the 600-meter dash. The runner-up shaved a second off of his qualifying time, but Melton held him off, winning by 0.3 seconds.

Junior Pat Grimes placed third in the 800, and ran the first leg of the distance medley relay, joining Nick Codola ’15, Geoff Ainslie ’12 and Romey Sklar ’15 for a fifth-place finish. First-year Greg Turissini also tallied points for the Jeffs, placing seventh in the 5,000.

The 4x800-meter relay team of Charlie Reighard ’14, Melton, Alex Durkee ’12 and Scheetz came from behind to nab fifth place. Melton and Durkee put together strong middle legs, and Scheetz anchored with a remarkable time of 1:50.

The Jeffs will compete at Boston Univ. next weekend at the Open New England Championships.