 "Photo: OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA RELATIONS/COURTESY PHOTO")
m returned from the ECAC Division III Championships at Smith College with a plaque in hand. In an amazing display of speed as well as strength, the Bobcats moved past 41 other teams to claim third place last Saturday.
Their score of 50 points beat out Amherst by one, but was not enough to compete with The College of New Jersey and Ithaca with 64 and 64.5 points, respectively. This is the Bobcats’ second ECAC top-three finish in three years – a tribute to the depth and talent of the senior class.
Among these successful seniors are Vantiel Elizabeth Duncan ’10 in the shot put and weight throw, Molly Radis ’10 and Lisa Hartung ’10 in the 500-meter, and Esther Kendall ’10 in the 3,000-meter.
Duncan won the weight throw with a top throw of 57-06.50. Sara Ellen Godek ’11 and Laura Smith ’10 also threw well, as both recorded personal records for the second week in a row. Godek placed fifth and Smith seventh.
Radis and Hartung both had a strong showing in the 500-meter, as Radis claimed second place with a time of 1:18.83. Her time puts her in second place on Bates’ all-time performance list behind former teammate Izzy Alexander ’09. Hartung also placed well in the event, finishing fourth and less than one second behind Radis in a time of 1:19.78.
Kendall outran 17 other competitors in the 3,000-meter to place seventh in a time of 10:38.10.
Although these seniors made a strong impact on the team’s overall score, the team is still considered to be very young with significant room for improvement in the years to come, according to Head Coach Jay Hartshorn.
Underclassmen who showed promise this weekend were Tina Tobin ’12 and Andrea Remec ’13 in individual events, and Bud Arens ’13, Lisa Reedich ’13, Kristen Poulin ’13 and Ansley Flanagan ’13 in relays.
Tobin, the current Bates 55-meter hurdles record-holder, placed 15th in one of the most competitive events of the day with a time of 8.83 seconds. In the pentathlon, Remec improved on her pre-event seed by one spot to finish 11th with 2,571 points.
In the relays, the 4x400-meter and the 4x800-meter teams both finished fourth with times of 4:03.81 and 9:37.96, respectively. Bates’ distance medley relay team of Reedich, Hartung, Arens and Kendall placed 10th overall and recorded its second-best time of the season, 12:48.52.
The Bobcats also finished 17th in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:50.00, the best time this season by the quartet of Poulin ’13, Flanagan, Liz Carleton ’12 and Georgia Doucette ’13.
Aside from Duncan, who will compete at the NCAA Championships on Mar. 12-14 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., the ECAC Championships mark the end of the indoor track and field schedule. On Mar. 27th, the team will transition to the outdoor track in Durham, N.H., at the University of New Hampshire.
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