The Wesleyan Indoor Track teams intimidated and destroyed the competition Saturday at the Cardinal Invitational in Freeman Athletic Center.
Saving his best performance for the final jump of the regular season, Mshangwe Crawford ’04 leaped 43 feet, 10 inches in the triple jump, qualifying for both the New England and ECAC Division III meets in the process. Max Piana ’05 jumped 42 feet, which was good for second place. Crawford and Piana also joined Josh Turkewitz ’06 and Justin Freiberg ’04 to finish first in the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:36.40.
“It felt really good to finally get a qualifying jump in this season. We don’t have very many men who qualified for championship meets, and since Triple Jump is an event that I know both Max Piana and I can score points for the team in, I’m glad to have the opportunity to score points for the team,” Crawford said. “Though we may not be sending very many guys to the postseason, we are sending a group of extremely talented runners and jumpers, and I expect us to represent Wesleyan well.”
Joel Pratt ’07 rounded out the slew of first place finishers for the Derrty Birds when he went 5 feet, 10 inches in the high jump. Bob Coppola ’05 and Matt Wendus ’05 jumped just two inches less, finishing second and third in the event, but the performance of the day belonged to Crawford.
“’Gwe Crawford finally got his thang on and unleashed a berserk set in triple jump. I stood behind him while he hit his biggest jump. I wasn’t sure if he would drop. It was beautiful. Greg Heller likewise gave a gusty performance in the 800 [3rd, 2:05.28], pushing hard out of the blocks. It was the flight we like to see. Brady, King and I mobbed deep in the 5K like a couple of Gs rolling on dubs. It was straight hoop-de-ville on the Seb Junger track before we unleashed Mad Dog for the win with a half mile to go,” said Bryan Bissell’04.
In other action, Chris Foster ’07 and Nate Huddell’07 finished second and third in the 1500-meter race (4:20.92, 4:30.77), Alex Battaglino ’07 and Nick Holowka ’07 finished third and fourth in the 3,000-meter race (9:36.12, 9:47.88), and Dave Tutor ’06 threw 40 feet, 8 inches to place second in the shot put. There was no team scoring for the meet. The next event for the men is the New England Division III meet, which will happen this Friday and Saturday at Bowdoin.
As for the Derrty Bird women, they also fared well this Saturday, capturing five individual first place titles. Esther Schlegel ’04 finished first in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of :08.97, Megan Wise ’05 topped the 1500-meter competition in 5:15.97, and Kristy Williams ’06 came out on top with a 42 foot, 7 inch weight throw. The incredible Rebecca duo brought home two first place finishes with Rebecca Morrell ’06 jumping 15 feet, 11 inches in the long jump competition, and Rebecca Weinstein ’04 jumping 5 feet in the high jump, just slightly higher than second place finisher Jen Brown ’04.
“A lot of people had really good performances Saturday and we looked strong. Everything is coming together going into the championship meet. We definitely have high hopes going into next week,” Weinstein said.
Cara Chebuske ’06 was just six hundredths of a second from becoming another first place finisher for the Cardinals, as she finished the 800-meter race a very close second in 2:25.07.
In other competition, Morgan Philbin ’04 and Abby Austin ’07 finished second and third in the 200-meter race (:28.03, :28.16), Gina Tassone ’05 and Liz Colville ’05 finished second and third in the 3,000-meter race (11:36.47, 11:45.32), and Williams took second with a 35 foot, 9 inch throw in the shot put. The next event for the women is the New England Division III Meet this Friday and Saturday at M.I.T.
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