Track finishes at ECACs

The men’s track and field team finished up their indoor season in a somewhat ambivalent fashion – although they were disappointed that they did not achieve any qualifying marks for NCAA Championships, they should be encouraged by their very strong performances at Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships on March 5 and 6 at Bowdoin College. “We ran pretty well. I’m pretty pleased,” Head Coach John Izzo said. “We had a very good Saturday, but just an adequate Friday. There’s a certain element of disappointment, but that’s not a bad thing. If you’re not disappointed, you don’t care. That being said, they gave it a hell of a go.” With 25 points, the men finished 11th out of 36 teams. “Since we were chasing National marks, we couldn’t just run it as a regular track meet,” Izzo said. “Otherwise we definitely would have finished significantly higher.” Junior Matt Rodems put the men on the board with a personal best time of 2:33.84 in the 1,000-meter run, placing him fifth. Freshman Andrew Whitbeck ran 8:57.64 in the 3,000-meter run to finish in fourth place. The 4 x 400-meter relay team of sophomore Matt Tierney, graduate Brian Strandberg, senior Greg Dusek and sophomore Chris Clark ran a time of 3:19.60, placing them third. They were narrowly defeated by the relay teams from Bowdoin and Springfield College, which ran 3:18.61. “They ran really well, they just got edged out,” Izzo said.Although they did not score any points, the 4 x 800-meter relay team of sophomore Chris Nolan, Rodems, senior Mike Hakiel and junior Terence Cordner had a very strong weekend, as they ran their fastest time of the season, 8:04.17, to finish 10th. Senior Andrew Wunder reached the finals in both the shot put and the weight throw. His shot put mark of 14.57 meters was his personal record, as he placed ninth. He marked 16.11 meters in the weight throw to finish in seventh place. Senior Jacob Budny posted 3,336 points in the pentathlon to finish second. With the start of the new season rapidly approaching, the men are anxiously awaiting the turn of the weather so that they can begin their outdoor practices. “We’re excited to get outside. We hope to be back at full strength by our home invitational on April 10,” Izzo said. “We’re looking forward to our southern trip to Virginia, then to opening our local season at Brockport on April 3.” Swidler can be reached at dswidler@campustimes.org.