This past weekend, the Mammoths travelled north to Middlebury to compete at the Division III New England Championships and left with a 13th place finish among the best teams in New England.
All individual events at the meet had a qualifying standard, while relay events were open to any team that choses to enter. Many of the Mammoths who qualified for the meet competed, while others chose to train in preparation for more competitive meets over the next few weekends.
In the 60-meter hurdles, Yonas Shiferaw ’20 and Maxim Doiron ’19 placed back-to-back once again with time of 9.00 and 9.05 seconds to place 25th and 26th overall, respectively.
After successful races last weekend at the banked track at Boston University, long sprinters Ryan Prenosil ’21 and Vernon Espinoza ’19 looked to challenge the 50-second barrier in the 400 meters once again, this time on the flat track at Middlebury. Prenosil completed the two-lap race in a time of 51.77 seconds, while Espinoza ran slightly faster with a time of 51.10 seconds.
Jordan Edwards ’20 earned the Mammoths’ their only points in the field events, scoring two points with his seventh-place finish in the triple jump. The sophomore jumped 13.65 meters (44’ 9.5”) to nearly match his season best from the Tufts Branwen Smith-King Invitational earlier in the season.
“This was a great way to end the indoor season,” Edwards said. “With many of us posting strong times at the meet, we should be in a good position in the beginning of the outdoor season.”
First-year Andrew Swenson ran another solid race in the 600 meters, clocking a time of 1:25.93. In his other three 600-meter races this season, the long sprinter also ran 1:25 and change, a remarkable display of consistency.
After a rocky first collegiate season, Estevan Velez ’20 showed that his sophomore season holds much more promise with another 800-meter personal best, finishing in 1:57.17.
For the second weekend in a row, the sophomore set a personal best, beating the old time of 1:57.56 he posted at the banked and notoriously fast track at BU.
Cosmo Brossy ’19 took another crack at the 3,000 meters, after a solid but physical race at Boston University.
However, the junior’s trademark kick wasn’t enough for the win, as Brossy came up .02 seconds short of Scott Mason of Conn. College, who claimed first overall. However, Brossy’s time of 8:24.84 on the flat Middlebury track, after being converted to a banked track time, puts him 12th in Division III nationally.
Junior Tucker Meijer added two more points to the eight points Brossy had accrued, placing seventh with a season best of 15:13 in the 5,000 meters.
Both Mammoth relays added to the point total, as the 4x400-meter relay of David Ingraham ‘18, Prenosil, Swenson and Espinoza placed eighth with a time of 3:26.48 to earn one point. Espinoza, the team’s anchor, had to slow down to avoid running into spectators who rushed onto the track to celebrate, contributing to the Mammoths’ less than ideal showing in the relay.
The 4x800-meter relay also placed eighth, as Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20, Jack Malague ’19, Ermias Kebede ’19 and Velez teamed up to earn one point with a time of 8:05.94.
With Division III nationals being held on a banked track at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, all times run this season on a flat track will be converted to thier equivalent on the faster banked track.
In order to take advantage of the conversion, the Mammoths will be going back to Middlebury next weekend to compete at the Winter Track Carnival, a meet with challenging qualifying standards to allow for small and competitive fields with nationals qualifying times in sight.