By: ELLIS TOLL
The last two weekends saw the Men’s Track and Field team in action at the Dartmouth Invitational and Liberty League Championships. The Dartmouth meet was an unscored competition, while the Saints placed second in the Liberty League.
Around half of the squad travelled to Dartmouth to compete, as coach John Newman elected to rest many of the athletes with an eye on clinching back-to-back Liberty League titles the following week. Those who did travel represented the Scarlet and Brown admirably, collecting ten top-ten finishes (eight individuals and two relays).
Junior Nick Crawford was the first SLU athlete to achieve the feat, finishing fourth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.92 seconds. In the next event, the 400 meters, Saint Freshman Harry Stivers (8th, 51.81 seconds) and sophomore Danny Viscardi (9th, 51.97) were neck and neck as they became the second and third top-tens on the day. Sophomore Dennis Korir continued the trend in the 500 meters when he finished third in his heat and fifth overall with a time of 1:08.41.
In the 1,000 meter run, all ten of the top times came from the fastest of three heats. Sophomore Joe Smith claimed sixth place, with a time of 2:33.80, less than four seconds off the school record. Junior Wesley Kirui also competed alongside Smith, finishing ninth in a time of 2:35.64.
Despite missing out on the finals of the event, Senior Shawn Lillie finished tenth in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.41 seconds. Lillie also finished tenth in the Long Jump, with a distance of 6.21 meters (20 feet, 4.5 inches). Junior Scott Kasson brought home a seventh place finish in the 35-pound weight throw with a heave of 15.02 meters (49 feet, 3.5 inches).
The highlight of the day for the Saints was the 4×200 meter relay, in which two of the top five teams wore scarlet and brown uniforms. The team of Freshmen Gordon White, Stivers, Viscardi and Crawford won the event in a time of 1:32.84. Finishing in fifth was the team of Freshman Will Johnson, Junior Rajiv Heron, Junior Zach Wells and Junior Alimamy Kabia in a time of 1:39.08.
At the Liberty League championships a week later, the Saints finished second with a total of 162 points, 24 points behind champion RPI. Kasson and Sophomore Tom Caulfield won individual titles in the shot put and 5,000 meters respectively while Senior Trevor Bibb had a pair of runner-up finishes in the 5,000 and 3,000 meters to lead the Saints.