The Derrty Birds of the track kicked off their outdoor season with a bang at the Trinity Invitational on Saturday.
Pat Moffett ’04, an All-American during the indoor track season, continued his string of stellar performances by capturing first place in the 110-meter hurdles in just :15.03. Mshangwe Crawford ’04 also continued his success from the indoor season by taking the title with a 42 foot, 11 inch triple jump. Moffett and Crawford joined Justin Freiberg ’04 and Taylor Bentley ’06 to finish third in the 4×100 meter relay with a time of :44.30.
Wes Fuhrman ’05, who has returned to form, finished third with a time of 4:07.49 in the 1500-meter run, while Matt Moss ’05 and Chris Foster ’07 ran 1:58.51 and 1:58.80 respectively in the 800-meter dash to finish third and fifth. In the year’s first 3000-meter steeplechase, Owen Kiely ’06 overcame an early obstacle to finish in second (9:50.18), while Matt Franco ’07 also ran well for Wesleyan, earning an eighth place finish (10:48.22).
“I’d like to draw attention to Nick ”Saturday Night“ Holowka [’07], who challenged the leader with a lap to go in the 1500. Also, Moss and Foster, the 800 tandem, did really well together, both ending up with early season times under 1:59,” Fuhrman said. “The drama for the day was when Owen hit a barrier in the Steeplechase, ended up moving the steeple and sliding it along the track, and lost five places. He ended up back in second place, showing strength and heart.”
Other top performances for the Cardinals included Joel Pratt’s ’07 fourth place, 5 foot, 10 inch high jump, and Max “Big Dippa” Piana’s ’05 fourth place, 40 foot, 8 inch triple jump. Although there were great performances all around, everyone seemed to focus most on the steeplechase.
“Owen Kiely and Matt Franco had some gritty steeplechase performances. They came out to compete in sloppy, frigid weather, and they both had some nasty spills over and into the steeplechase barriers. The gutsiness they showed early on set a high standard for our team today,” Holowka said.
The ladies also performed well at the Trinity Invitational, a meet that did not have team scoring. Esther Schlegel ’04 led the team with a second place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (:15.67) and a seventh place finish in the 400-meter hurdles (1:09.78). Indoor All-American Jenna Flateman ’04 finished fifth with a 107 foot, 5 inch javelin throw, and Rebecca Morrell ’06 notched fourth place with a 33 foot, 10 inch triple jump.
“In general, considering the conditions, people did pretty well. It was raining and freezing cold outside, but hopefully at next week’s home meet, we will have good weather and good performances,” Morrell said.
Wesleyan’s other two top eight female finishers were Jen Brown ’04 and Cara Chebuske ’06, who finished eighth in the 400 and 800-meter races respectively.
Looking ahead in the season, Bryan Bissell ’04 will likely make his return from a back injury soon. The Derrty Birds are already without Mike “Mad Dog” Brady ’07, whose unplanned overnight stay in the New Hampshire wilderness a month ago resulted in frostbite on his left foot. Brady will return for the fall cross-country season. The next event for the Cardinals will be this Saturday’s Swanson Invitational, the only outdoor track meet to be held at home this season.
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