Outdoor Track Hurtles Through UMass Meet
By Carlyn Robertson '14, Managing Sports Editor
The outdoor track and field teams had a strong showing at the UMass Invitational on Saturday afternoon, with the men finishing fourth of seven and the women coming in fifth out of ten.

The men’s team won four events to put up a final score of 114. Junior Ben Scheetz took first in the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:57.80. Scheetz’s time of 1:53.26 snagged him a second-place finish in the 800. Matt Melton ’14 won the 400-meter dash with a 49.61. Andrew Reed finished first in the 200-meter dash. His time of 22.65 edged out the runner-up by just over .2 seconds.

Andrew Erksine ’13 and John McGrail ’11 were dominant in the 10k. They finished first and second with times of 32.00.89 and 32.09.06, respectively. It was a comfortable victory, as they were more than 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.

Dillon Buckley ’13 was the runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a 9:45.11 finish. Kevin Hanley ’11 was close behind to take third place with a 9:55.31. Senior Christopher Eaton’s toss of 49.96 in the hammer throw was just shy of a school record and earned him third place out of 17 competitors.

The women had several top-five performers in the meet. Keri Lambert ’13 finished second in the steeplechase with an 11:10.23 finish. Melissa Sullivan ’12 finished fifth of 40 runners in the 5k race with a 17:47.34. Christina Wong ’11 and Sarah Daly ’13 placed second and third in the 10k with times of 38:49.44 and 39:08.78, respectively.

Senior Susan Wasserman’s 1:08.61 finish earned her fifth place in the 400-meter hurdles. First-year Naomi Bates was fourth in the 100-meter dash. Her time of 12.76 set a new freshman school record, besting Rachael Halloway’s 1995 time of 12.82. The Jeffs will return to UMass this weekend for the Minuteman Invitational.

Issue 22, Submitted 2011-04-13 20:11:10