Three Cardinals take first place at track and field NESCACs

Wesleyan track and field headed to Hamilton on Saturday for this year’s NESCAC championship meet. Three Cardinals turned in the best individual performances of the day in their events, as the men’s team took fourth and the women finished eighth out of the eleven NESCAC schools.

Sam Grover ’08, who last year set the all-time Wesleyan record for the triple jump, edged out Tufts’ Dan Marcy and Tommie Lark ’11 for this year’s NESCAC triple jump title. Grover proved to be the star of the day, entering five events and scoring an astounding 23 total points on his own.

“Sam is someone who is clearly talented but also works really hard every day,” said shot-putter Newman Hoffman ’09. “To score 23 points is just unheard of and it was a great reflection of the preparation that Sam puts in.”

For the women’s team, Fotini Xenidis ’11 and Kathryn Kulowski ’11 both took home individual titles. Xenidis blew away the competition with a javelin throw of 141-6, which was over 30 feet farther then the second place bid put forth by Bowdoin’s Chelsea Jackson and less than two feet short of Xenidis’ own Wesleyan record set earlier this year.

Kulowski took Wesleyan’s third individual title on Saturday by clearing 5-1 in the high jump. Sukki Chham ’11 continued the strong performances by Wesleyan field competitors as she placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 16-5.25. On the men’s side, Lark and Grover placed second and fifth in the long jump, while Grover also placed fourth in the high jump. Mike Moody ’10 gave a toss of just under 180 feet, which was good enough for second place in the javelin, as Bates’ Chris Murtagh squeaked by with a throw of 180-2.

On the track, the best finishes belonged to Jonah Blumstein ’09 and Lynn Edmonds ’11, who took third in the 10,000m and 400m, respectively. The men’s distance medley relay team—composed of Chris Greene ’08, Chris Foster ’09, Brad Litchfield ’09 and Matt Katz ’11—also finished third, behind Williams and Tufts.

Other notable performances came from Sean Watson ’08, who finished fourth in the 5000m, and from Grover and Christina Barnett ’11, who both finished fifth in the 100m hurdles.

“It has been a number of years since we’ve placed in the top half of the field in NESCACs,” Hoffman said. “The track and field season is basically a year-round commitment and it feels great to finish on a high note.”

The Cardinals return to the polluted banks of the Thames this weekend for the New England Division III meet hosted by the Coast Guard Academy, where they look to improve on last year’s 14th and 18th place finishes.