The men's track team seemed very content with their finish at this past weekend's Little III meet held at Amherst. Coming off a series of satisfactory but not outstanding meets, the team worked especially hard this past week during their workouts in the warm weather. They also had extra meetings to increase their team energy coming into the next round of meets. Junior distance runner John Stanton-Geddes was pleased with the weekend's efforts. "We went in with the goal of beating Wesleyan and we dominated them," said Stanton-Geddes.

Despite placing second overall to the Williams College Ephs, the Jeffs were impressive in the distance, sprint and relay events and had a surprise win in the javelin from "the man of the meet," freshman Jay Wagstaff.

Along with his win in the javelin throw, beating out experienced senior Williams thrower Matt Holland by .12 meters, Wagstaff also took second place in the 100m dash. Fellow freshman Matt Monteith followed Wagstaff to take third for the Jeffs in the 100m.

Amherst dominated the longer sprint races. Janak Chandrasoma '04 won the 400m dash and was followed by junior Brian Hart's strong third place finish.

Also in the sprinting division, the 4x400 team took home first place, edging out the Williams team by only .4 seconds.

The Jeffs certainly missed junior co-captain Pat Hayes who had been dominating the hurdle races before last weekend's hamstring injury. However, Nathaniel Mahlberg '05 once again stepped up to the plate and placed in both the 110m high hurdles and the 400 intermediates.

In the middle distance events, Williams dominated the meet, having at least two out of the top three runners in both the 800m and 1,500m races.

"[Katz ran a] real gutsy, outstanding race in the 5k with a thrilling last mile," said teammate and classmate Zeke Phillips. The freshman has been steadily improving over the season and is now only a few seconds off the freshman school record.

Finally, the Amherst men showed their strength and potential in the 3,000m steeplechase, taking second and third places. Alex Lenkoski '03 finished in under 10 and a half minutes, followed closely by Phillips. It was the first time either of them had run the event.

The Little III Championships gave the Jeffs a great start and a good deal of confidence in their ability to rival the best in Division III.

"It was a start that we look to build on in the coming weeks, beginning this weekend at the NESCAC Championships," said Phillips.

Next up for the Jeffs will be the NESCAC Championships this weekend hosted by Bates College. The following weekend, the men will show their prowess in distance, sprint and relay events at the Men's Division III Championships, which will be held at Springfield College.