Men

The men’s track and field team traveled to Colby this past weekend to compete in the NESCAC championships. Battling the elements, the Jeffs struggled to maintain the momentum they had gained the previous week at the Little Three Championships and took eighth place out of 11 teams with 31 points. Tufts took the conference crown by winning the meet with a score of 178.90.

The top performance on the day came from junior Mark Cort, who took second place in the long jump with a leap of 6.63 meters. Stephen Hetterich ’15 also performed well in the triple jump by finishing in sixth place with a jump of 12.71 meters.
In the sprints, senior Matt Melton turned in a solid effort in the 400 meters, running a time of 49.91 seconds. Jamie Sandel ’17 continued a very strong first-year outdoor campaign by finishing ninth in the 400-meter hurdles.

In the 800 meters, Brent Harrison finished seventh place, and Romey Sklar ’15 ran 4:00.54 in the 1500 meters beating fellow Jeff Kevin Connors ’17 by less than a second. KC Fussell ’15 finished in third place in the 10,000-meter race with a time of 31:05.56 and was barely edged out by Williams’ Colin Cotton.

Up next for Amherst is the Div. III New Englands hosted by Springfield this weekend.

Women

The Amherst women were buoyed by a number of stellar individual performances to finish eighth out of 11 in the NESCAC championships.

Karen Blake ’17 continued her incredible first outdoor season by winning the 100 meters with a time of 12.30 seconds — the third fastest in outdoor program history. Blake also placed fourth in the 200 meters.

Fellow first-year Kiana Herold also claimed a NESCAC title, winning the high jump. Her jump of 1.62 meters is a first-year record and the second-best in program history.

All-American Naomi Bates ’14 won the long jump crown to add to the team’s stellar performances. Already owning the top two leaps in Amherst history, Bates jumped 5.69 meters for a first-place finish. In a second place effort in the 200 meters, Bates claimed the fourth fastest time in Amherst history, crossing the finish line in a time of 25.45 seconds. She also scored points for the Jeffs in the 100 meter dash, finishing fourth, and ran a leg on the Jeffs fourth-place 4x100 meter relay team.

“Eighth place obviously wasn’t what we were shooting for, but I’m satisfied with the fact that I did my best to score points for our team,” Bates remarked. “In retrospect, there are things that I could have done better, but it’s best to look forward to next weekend.”

The women will also compete at the Div. III New England Championships this weekend at Springfield.