While much of the Hopkins student body was slumbering through the long holiday break, members of the men's indoor track and field team returned to the Homewood campus early to continue their training for the grueling season ahead. And after a challenging set of meets, the runners, throwers, vaulters and jumpers all know there is still a fair amount of work to be done.
Last Saturday at the University of Maryland Terrapin Invitational, a few of the Jays got their first taste of prime-time Division I competition as well as some Division III squads. Although it was not a scoring meet, Hopkins still raced their top runners in each event.
In the 60-meter dash, junior Chris Cottrell posted the fastest time for Hopkins with a 7.21 in the preliminaries. This time, however, did not qualify him for finals. Additionally, Cottrell sprinted to a 23.55 time in the 200 meter dash.
The one mile run featured a trio of Jays. Senior Jason Chiang posted the gutsy performance of the race, clocking in at 4:41 and placing 22nd. Following Chiang were seniors Andrew Bauerschmidt (25th) and Michael Yuan (29th).
The highlight of the Jays' day had to be senior Andrew Lewis' strong effort in the 3K. Lewis' hasty time of 9:05.43 finished him 15th in the field of 39. Junior Patrick Brandon (17th) came in on the heels of Lewis and posted a time of 9:09.05.
Although there was a good deal to smile about at the conclusion of the meet, the disappointment of the team's 4x400-meter team could not be missed. The four-man contingent crossed the line second to last with a time of 3:42.30.
Before the Terrapin Invite, a select group of Jays was hand-picked by Head Coach Bobby Van Allen to participate in the Gotham Cup on Jan. 12. The meet was held at New York's Armory Center, one of the most prestigious venues in all of indoor track.
There were many finishes of note. The most worthy was Brandon's seventh-place mark in the 5,000 meter race. Brandon, the top runner for Hopkins' cross country, utilized his pre-existent stamina and determination to cross the line with a time of 15:42. Right behind Brandon was freshman David Sigmon who impressed many with his showing (14th place, 16:10).
Not to be forgotten, one of the most diligent members of track team, sophomore thrower Peter Li, represented the Jays well in the shot put by heaving the shot a distance of 14.02 meters. The strong toss gave Li the 14th spot among competitors that day.
"Over the summer and during Intersession, I really worked hard," Li said. "Before [in my weight training], I used to do only power cleans, but now I've expanded my training to include squats, bench press and other lifts."
Li has progressed nicely since last year, having already broken the indoor record for the shot put at the Dec. 9 Ursinus Indoor Track Classic. The first-place throw that got Li into the record books traveled a whopping 14.24 meters.
The other first-place finish at the Ursinus Classic came courtesy of a surprise win by freshman Noah Jampol in the one-mile run. Jampol's time of 4:38.72 beat out three other Hopkins runners, freshman Nate Sotuyo (4:41.69), junior Jason Hortiatis (4:45.45) and junior Eric Miller (4:45.54) who placed second, third and fourth respectively.
In the pole vault, sophomore Matt Trachtenberg placed fifth at the meet, leaping 3.80 meters. Trachtenberg, one of the integral pieces for Hopkins' success last year, believes that the freshmen on the squad will contribute in a big way to the 2007 campaign.
"We have some solid freshmen," Trachtenberg said. "And since we lost a lot of important seniors last year, we're really going to need the freshmen on the team to step up."
When all the dust had settled, the team as a whole claimed the runner-up trophy, besting all but one (Cheyney University) of the 17 teams competing in Collegeville, Pa., that day.
The early success of men's track and field thus far is a good indication that the tough practices are working and that there are still good things to come for these Jays. The men's track team will compete next at Haverford's McElliot Invitational on Saturday.
