Feb. 16, 2009
BOSTON - Freshman Will Griffin (Columbia, CT) qualified for the IC4A Championships in the mile run, leading a brigade of personal-best performances by underclassmen for the Marist College men's track team, which competed Saturday at the Valentine Invitational at Boston University.
Griffin improved his mile time by four seconds and finished in 4:13.97, qualifying for the IC4A Championships, which will be held at the same BU track on March 7-8. His classmate, freshman Tom Lipari (Greenvale, NY), improved his mile time by eight seconds and zoomed to a personal-best time of 4:18.18, which included a final 400-meter split of 62.0 seconds.
In the 500-meter dash, junior Colin Frederickson (Colonie, NY) continued his stellar sprinting season with a personal-best time of 1:05.91, which is less than a second shy of the IC4A qualifying mark in that event. He later ran a 50.0-second split in the 1,600-meter relay.
A pair of middle-distance runners notched strong personal-best times. Sophomore John Carabetta (Park Ridge, NJ) moved up from his usual sprint distances and debuted with a best of 1:58.91 at 800 meters. Freshman Kyle Havard (Atlantic Highlands, NJ) improved his best in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:32.58.
During the evening distance races, there were more highlights for the Red Foxes. In the 3,000-meter run, freshman Matt Flint (Queensbury, NY) lowered his best by three seconds with a time of 8:30.49, which is just three seconds shy of the IC4A qualifying mark in that event. Freshman Curtis Jensen (Atlantic Highlands, NJ) lowered his personal-best in the event by a whopping 11 seconds with a time of 8:41.60. Additionally, sophomores Zak Smetana (Niskayuna, NY, 8:53:21) and Sam McMullen (Newton, NJ, 8:56.95) lowered their personal-bests in the event.
In the 5,000-meter run, sophomore Tim Keegan (Huntington Station, NY) lowered his personal-best in the event by 10 seconds and cracked the 15:00 barrier for the first time by clocking 14:56.45. He becomes the 11th Marist runner to crack the 15:00 time for 5,000 meters since the program was elevated to Division 1 status in 1991. Keegan's classmate, sophomore Nick Webster (Latham, NY), registered a personal-best time of 15:11.96 in the same race.
The track team will return to action on Friday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. The meet begins at 6:30 p.m.
Individual Results
55-meter dash:
Mike Cocca 6.93
Mike McCloskey 6.95
Neal Viets 7.29
James Boylan 7.54
200-meter dash:
Mike Cocca 23.49
Mike McCloskey 24.05
John Kristie 24.31
Neal Viets 24.36
James Boylan 25.13
400-meter dash:
Derrick Powell 51.22
John Kristie 52.34
500-meter dash:
Colin Frederickson 1:05.91
800-meter run:
John Carabetta 1:58.91
Greg Dubois 2:03.67
Corey Ennist 2:06.42
Alex Cuesta 2:09.61
1,000-meter run:
Kyle Havard 2:32.58
Brian McCormick 2:37.09
Colin Johnson 2:37.23
Mile run:
Will Griffin 4:13.97 *IC4A qualifier
Tom Lipari 4:18.18
Kris Geist 4:36.02
3,000-meter run:
Matt Flint 8:30.49
Curtis Jensen 8:41.60
Zak Smetana 8:53.21
Sam McMullen 8:56.95
Greg Masto 9:48.32
Mike Holinko 10:07.70
5,000-meter run:
Tim Keegan 14:56.45
Nick Webster 15:11.96
John Keenan 15:16.22
Alex Emerel 15:37.90
Pat Duggan 15:45.26
Brian Townsend 15:47.01
1,600-meter relay:
Marist (Mike Cocca, Colin Frederickson, John Carabetta) 3:29.16
Pole vault:
Max Carow 3.96m
