t has been a busy month for the Amherst men’s indoor track & field team. On Jan. 16, the team notched four event victories en route to scoring 128 points, winning four individual events and claiming second place overall at the 2015-16 Little Three Indoor Championships at Wesleyan University.
David Ingraham ’18 claimed first place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.46.
The purple and white saw the most success in the middle distance events, in which they claimed four overall victories. Kristian Sogaard ’19 earned first in the 800 meter (1:58.41) and Kevin Connors ’17 claimed first in the mile (4:19.47). In the final event of the day, the squad of Brent Harrison ’16, Jesse Fajnzylber ’17, Steven Lucey ’17 and Ermias Kebede ’19 claimed first place in the 4x800 meter with a time of 8:16.52.
On Jan. 23, the team competed to a second-place finish at the Smith College Invitational, which included two individual victories. Cosmo Brossy ’19 and Justin Barry ’18 finished back-to-back in the 5,000-meter run, finishing first and second with times of 15:25.87 and 15:34.25, respectively. Connors also claimed a victory in the 3,000-meter with a time of 8:37.37.
On Jan. 30, the team was split. Some members of the squad competed at the Springfield College Invitational and finished second overall, while the rest of the team ventured into Boston to compete at the Terrier Classic hosted by Boston University.
Lucey claimed first in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:32.67, while Vernon Espinoza ’19, Jack Malague ’19 and Kevin Dooley ’19 finished third, fourth and fifth with times of 2:39.85, 2:40.68 and 2:42.41, respectively.
Amherst continued to impress in the 3,000-meter run, with the purple and white claiming four of the top five spots in the race. Peter Horton ’18 led the way with a first-place finish (8:52.90), while the third through fifth places were awarded to Jack Wesley ’18 (8:53.91), Barry (8:55.29) and Aaron Zambrano ’18 (9:15.88).
Amherst also took the top spot in the 4x800 meter relay, with the quartet of Harrison, Espinoza, Silverman and Fajnzylber finishing in 8:11.35.
Competing against largely Division I competition in the Terrier Classic at Boston University, Connor finished 43rd overall (4:14.18) and Sogaard placed 69th (4:20.04) in the mile run. In the 3,000-meter, Dan Crowley ’16 placed 38th with a time of 8:22.89, while sophomore Mohamed Hussein placed 48th (8:27.19). Jeff Seelaus ’16 finished 64th overall (8:30.66).
“The men’s team is finally getting into the main part of the season, and a lot of people have been setting personal records so far,” Sogaard said. “We have had a lot of people qualify for New England’s and ECAC’s so far, and we are getting more qualifiers every meet.”
