Despite the tough competition from such running powerhouses as Williams, Bates and Middlebury, the Jeff men managed to pull off a string of impressive performances in both the relays and individual events in the first meet requiring qualifying times. "We were hoping to be able to score 40 points, and we beat that expectation by seven points so it was a great day for the team," said Head Coach Erik Nedeau.
Pat Hayes '03 once again surpassed his season best by .40 seconds in the 110m hurdles, qualified for the finals and finished third overall with a time of 15.09 in an extremely tight race. The 400m was also stacked with Amherst men. Co-captain Jared Moshe '01 finished second (49.43), with Co-captain Rob Long '01 (fifth, 49.86) and Brian Hart '03 (50.77, ninth) not far behind. Janak Chandrasoma '04 managed to qualify for the finals in the 200m and finished eighth overall with a time of 22.80.
The 800 was where some of the best performances of the day took place. Andy Schneider '04 won his heat in a time of 2:02.26, where only minutes later Jacob Cooper '02 dominated his flight by running a blistering 2:01.97. Ben Kozyak '02 pulled of his fastest performance of the season by two seconds, and finished fifth overall with a time of 1:57.30. "I think our tapering is really starting to show as we head into the championship season," said Kozyak.
Mike Page '04 captured everyone's attention as he and Carson Taylor '03 competed in what is arguably one of the toughest events of any meet, the 3000m steeplechase. This race, laden with hurdles and water jumps, tests both mental and physical strength. Page showed little intimidation as he finished fourth with a time of 9:48.29. Not only did he break his personal best by 16 seconds, but he also shattered the freshman record by 10 seconds. "I was hoping to accomplish a couple of things with this race, and luckily I was able to race pretty well and get most of them done," said Page.
The 4x100m relay (Baker, Moshe, Chandrasoma and Phillip Jones '04) had a tough time with handoffs in this short but intense event, but nevertheless finished fourth with a time of 43.71. The 4x400m team (Hart, Long, Chandrasoma and Moshe) was the last event of the two-day meet, and perhaps the most exciting of all. After a tough break last week at Little IIIs involving some jostling and a dropped baton in the final stretch, Amherst looked for revenge this week against an extremely strong Williams team. Although Amherst got second again this week, they ran a time of 3:18.63, which is the fastest time run by an Amherst 4x400m team in two years. "We ran a tough race," said relay anchor Moshe. "Although we got second, I think we have lots of room for improvement."
Women's Tri-captain Amie Shei '02 said, "Our ninth place finish doesn't truly reflect the quality of our team." The Jeffs' middle- and long-distance runners have been the strength of the outdoor track team throughout the season and no doubt this facet of the team was on display at the NESCAC Championships.
One of Amherst's top 10 performances came from Shei, who finished sixth in the field of 15 with a time of 1:01.22 in the 400m. "My speed workouts have been a real confidence booster, and I'm looking forward to cutting down some time in the last few weeks of the season," said Shei.
Dimon provided a spark for the long-distance unit of the team on the second day with her fifth place out of 19 athletes in the 5000m, with her time of 18:41.96. "I wasn't making any assumptions when I stepped onto the line. I actually hadn't raced against a lot of the girls that were there this weekend before," said Dimon. Emily Lobsenz '02 ran a 38:04.96, good enough for eighth place in the 10,000m run, a national provisional time.
The Jeff women were especially impressive in the relays. In the 400m relay, Amherst scored a sixth-place performance with a time of 4:12.24. The highlight of the meet came in the 800m relay where the Jeffs finished second overall with a time of 9:39.34. For the second straight week, Helen Dole '04 was all over the track competing in the heptathlon. She finished sixth in the event with 3139 points.
The track team continues its postseason this weekend at the Division III New England Championships at Middlebury College. "Most people are just beginning to taper in terms of mileage and weight-training, so the performances should continue to improve in the coming weeks. We are looking forward to building on the great performances we had this past weekend at NESCACs," said Shei.