Sports

Men's track makes a run at Keogh invite

In print | February 28, 2008

Last Friday, the Swarthmore men’s Indoor Track Team traveled to Haverford College to compete in the Keogh Invitational, their last meet before the Centennial Conference Championships.

None of Swarthmore’s hefty throwing squad qualified for conferences, but Max Wilson ‘10 remained optimistic about the next phase of the team’s development. “Now that winter season is over, we can all concentrate on javelin and discus events that favor the physique of our guys,” he said.

These outdoor events are also ones in which the throws coach Tom Reynolds, a previous Centennial Conference Champion, particularly exceeds.

Other notable efforts from the field came with the performance of Brendan McVeigh ’11, who pole vaulted to a season personal record of ten feet and six inches. This height earned McVeigh a sixth place finish in the meet and a very near miss of the conference qualifying standards.

On the track, many of the men had stellar days, with five runners posting Conferences-qualifying times. Connor Darby ’09 ran a 54 second 400m, clocking the first qualifying time of the evening.

Teammates Chris Mayer-Bacon ’11 and Kwame Osei ’11 also gave solid efforts, though not quite running qualifying times.

This race was Osei’s debut on the track and an affirmation of his development as a runner. Asked what he thought about his race, Osei said, “For my first time racing, it was pretty good.” Like the throwers, this freshman from California is looking forward to an exciting outdoor season.

The next qualifying time came from Andrew VanBuren ’10, who ran a spectacular time of 4:42 in the mile. Teammate Seth Green ’10 ran a strong 800, posting a time of 2:10 that missed qualifying by tenths of a second.

To finish the evening, a pack of Swarthmore’s lean, mean, distance machines rocked the 3k, with three of the men running qualifying times.

They were led by Ross Weller ’08 whose Cheshire-grin showed just how happy he was to be back on the track after a season plagued with injury and the imminent threat of life in the working world after Swarthmore.

Pleased with his time of 9:13, Weller commented that he “probably would have gone faster if I were being chased by a rabid animal, but Shoopie was close enough.” Jonathan Shoop ’08 and Micah Katz ’08 followed Weller with times of 9:20 and 9:28, respectively.

At the end of the day, Coach John Noon was content with the team’s solid performance. “We made some big improvements this week, with many of the guys qualifying or barely missing conference qualifying standards. The men’s team is really coming together.”

With all of these encouraging performances, the track team is readying itself for the Conference Championships, which are to be held this Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2, at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa.