Track & Field Wraps Up Spring Season
FREDERICK, Md.--The Hood College track and field teams traveled to Towson Saturday, competing against Goucher College and a partial squad from York College in a non-scoring meet.
The men's team came away with 11 victories, led by Corey DeMaster's wins in the long jump, triple jump and 400 meter hurdles and Matt Haynes who tacked 10 feet onto his school hammer standard, throwing 114' 6 3/4", and also captured the discus and javelin.
Junior captain Steve Delaney moved from last place at 400 meters to capture the 1500 in a new school record time of 4:21.7. Delaney later came back to anchor the winning 4 x 400 meter relay team to a new standard of 3:38.01. Ryan Jenkins and Tomilayo Komolafe were part of this effort and were joined early by Mike Cahill and Faizal Johnson in lowering the 4 x 100 best by nearly a half-second to 44.90 in a narrow loss.
Additional wins were secured by Brendan Greenlees (5000 meters) and Robert Lindsay (who tied school record of 31' 3 3/4" in the shot). Nick Manning missed Williams Andrews' record by less than 3/4's of a second in winning the steeplechase.
On the womenýs side, Erica Hamor took away three wins in the shot, javelin and hammer throws. Hamor's hammer (69' 11 1/4") and javelin (88' 10 3/4") efforts raised her previous standards. The women's 4 x 100 meter relay of Sara Stiles, Amanda Kwiatkowski, Anika Watley and Meredith McDonough picked up a win, as did Julia Blickenstaff, who won the steeplechase in her final appearance in a Blazer singlet.
Anika Watley and Rachel Pectol joined Blickenstaff in their final collegiate track appearance. "Anika did a fine job in her first season of track. She learned an awful lot and got stronger with each meet," said head track and field coach Brent Ayer.
"Rachel and Julia were among the first athletes I attempted to bring to Hood College. They were in our cross country varsity top seven their entire time here and provided the leadership that was instrumental in establishing the Hood running program."
"In particular, I wanted to recognize Rachel's commitment to our fledgling club level track program. Without this, I am not sure we would have attained varsity status this spring. The athletes that follow Julia and Rachel will be working off the foundation they built."
Sunday the Blazers posted several fine showings at the Frederick Marathon. The final two records of the initial varsity season of the track and field program were produced when freshman William Andrews and sophomore Danielle Sgro completed the 26.2 miles course.
Sgro finished in 3 hours 38 minutes 16.1 seconds as the 14th woman overall. She received a prize for finishing third in the 20-24 year-old age group. Her effort earned her the additional distinction of qualifying for the most prestigious endurance road race in the world, the Boston Marathon.
Andrews covered the distance in 3:15:28.1 in winning the 19 & under age group and finishing 41st overall in a field of 721 runners.
The Hood College Marathon Relay team of Nick Manning, Steve Delaney, Brendan Greenlees and Faraz Shoai finished second out of 13 exclusively male teams (and 70 relay teams, overall).
Other solid efforts were put forward by four-year cross country runner Robert Mitchell (3:58:33), track athlete Ben Caplins (4:21:50) and recent alum and 1500 and 5000-meter school record-holder Kelly Buriak (3:52:14).
This was the first marathon for Andrews, Sgro, Caplins and Buriak.
"I was impressed with the discipline and intelligence displayed by Danielle and William on their first marathons," said Ayer. "It is hard enough to run 26.2 miles for the first time, but to do it very close to target pace, with winds gusting to 30 miles per hour, represents a fine accomplishment.
"All of these athletes worked very hard to prepare and should be proud of their efforts. We had a nice showing for the local running community."
The marathon brings to conclusion the 2007 season for newly established varsity track and field program. In total, records were set and re-set 50 times across five track meets and the Marathon. The program expanded from the 12 athletes on last year's club level roster to 34 in the inaugural NCAA season.
Leading the way for the men were Andrews who posted new school records in the 5000 meters, 10,000 meters, steeplechase and marathon. Also notching multiple new standards were Corey DeMaster (triple jump, high jump, 400 meter hurdles) and Ryan Jenkins (200 meters and 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 meter relays). Swimmer Matt Haynes, in his first season ever of track, set new records in the shot, javelin and hammer throws.
On the women's side, two new throwing records apiece were set by freshmen Katie Reichard (shot and discus) and Erica Hamor (hammer and javelin). Sgro notched records at 10,000 meters and the marathon. Anika Watley created an initial long jump standard and helped lower the record of both relay events.
"Twenty-four of our 34 athletes were competing in their first season of college track," said Ayer. "We made a good deal of progress despite the cancellation of over one-third of our meets due to flukey April weather. We are losing four talented athletes, but we expect to pick up far more and, with what we have returning, I look for continued growth and improvement next year."
