Men’s Track Finishes in Fourth Place at Tufts Sunshine Classic
Issue   |   Tue, 04/26/2016 - 23:29

The Amherst men’s outdoor track and field team finished fourth in the Tufts Sunshine Classic last weekend at Tufts with a score of 52 points.

In the sprint events, Aziz Khan ’18 finished sixth in the 200-meter dash, with a time of 22.84 to earn three points for Amherst.

Brent Harrison ’16 took fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.22 for the purple and white.

First-year hurdler Maxim Doiron raced to a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.37.

The purple and white excelled in the mid-distance events this weekend, with first-year Vernon Espinoza running the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.26 earning him first place, while Jesse Fajnzylber ’17 finished sixth in the same event with a time of 1:57.31.

First-year Kristian Sogaard proved to be the highlight of the meet, however, taking first place in a tough 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:01.17.

Surprisingly, Sogaard said he ran the 1,500-meter race last weekend as rest for the 800-meter run. “I will be running the 800 meter in all the remaining meets so I just wanted to run a fast 1,500 because I hadn’t really run one the whole season,” Sogaard said. He is looking forward to getting down to 1:53.00 in the 800-meter run so he can qualify for the Open New England in two weeks.

Although many of the purple and white distance runners were resting this week, Aaron Zambrano ’18 still impressed for Amherst, placing fourth overall in the 5,000-meter run with a mark of 16:18.71.

Rounding out the track events, the group of Stadtler Thompson ’19, Khan, David Ingraham ’18 and Thomas Matthew ’16 raced a 44.37 in the 4x100-meter relay for a third-place finish.

In the field events, senior Khalil Flemming was the standout; jumping 6.10-meters in the long jump giving him sixth place overall. Flemming also impressed in the triple jump, with a 12.98-meter jump, putting him in fourth place.

The Amherst track and field team will compete in the Penn Relays this week on Thursday, April 28.

Following this meet, the team will finish their season by competing in the NESCAC Championships on Saturday, April 30.