On January 4, Bates hosted the 50th Maine State Meet Indoor Championships. While the Bobcats put forward a solid performance, it was not enough to overcome No. 20 Bowdoin.

By the end of the meet, Bowdoin had racked up 223 points. Bates followed in second with 180, Southern Maine in third with 76 and Colby in fourth with 69 points. Even in the face of this loss, Bates came out of this meet celebrating many notable accomplishments.

Among these achievements includes Adedire Fakorede ’18 taking home the Peter Goodrich Memorial Most Valuable Field Athlete Award.

“It’s a special trophy. It has a very good history with Bates,” Fakorede says. “David Pless was the last one to win it; Rich McNeil won it; Chris Murtagh won it…so it makes me happy to…hold this trophy and call it my own.”

At this meet, Fakorede won the weight throw with a mark of 62-05.75, breaking the previous meet record of 62-1.25, held by David Pless ’13, by 4.5 inches. Additionally, he placed second in the shot put, throwing a personal record of 48-09.

“It felt pretty good. I was in awe,” Fakorede says. “I’ve definitely been looking forward to it. It was a number I had in my head. I knew it was 18.93m (62-1.25 ft.), and I had thrown 19.05m in my sophomore year, but I had never gotten back to that point.”

Mark Fusco ’18 won an exciting 600m in 1:22.67, beating out Bowdoin by a small margin of 0.17 seconds, right at the line.

After a season high performance in the mile, placing second in 4:14, Jack Kiely ’18 came back to win the 1000m run in 2:34. Kiely now currently ranks 11th nationally in division III for the mile. In the high jump, Beaufils Kimpolo-Pene ’20 also earned a state championship title, jumping 6-04. Garrett Anderson ’18 similarly won the pole vault in a decisive 14-05.25.

Many other athletes contributed to Bates’ success Saturday night in the field, on the track, and in the dark.

Robert Flynn ’18 placed second in the 800m by a heartbreaking 0.04 seconds after running a hard race against Bowdoin. After separating from the field early on in the race, Flynn and the runner from Bowdoin remained neck and neck until finishing in 1:55. Ryan Nealis ’21 followed shortly after, earning third with a time of 2:01.

In the 3000m, Henry Colt ’19 and Zach Magin ’18 earned second and third, crossing the line together in 8:45. Colt and Magin ran the race together, staying with the first place runner from Bowdoin until only the last few laps of the race.

In a similar situation, Stephen Rowe ’18 and Justin Levine ’20 both ran a hard 5000m race, placing second and third in times of 15:26 and 15:32. Although they ran with the leader for much of the race, a strong surge in the last few laps of the race was enough to secure the win for Bowdoin.   

Bates also placed second and third in the 400m with Ryan Corley ’19 running 52.16 and Michael Somma ’19 hitting 52.56. Ian Wax ’19 earned second in the 1000m, running close behind Kiely, to hit a time of 2:35.

David Dick ’18 finished second in the pole vault, hitting a mark of 13-05.25.

In the 4x400m relay, Bates earned third with a team composed of Elijah Coyne ’21, Fusco, Miles Nabritt ’21 and Somma in a time of 3:31.

At the end of the meet, in the “Blackout Relay,” where much of the indoor lighting is turned off in an annual tradition, Bates’ 4×800 team comprised of Nealis, Wax, Gabe Benson ’20, and Flynn earned second, running a time of 8:09. During this race, athletes and spectators lined the track to cheer their teams on. Not to be outdone, the Bobcats could be heard far across the track, ending the meet with a strong show of support for their teammates.

“We had many outstanding performances from every aspect of the team,” head men’s track and field coach Al Fereshetian says. “I thought the team competed very well. There was a tremendous attitude of determination throughout the meet, regardless of what the points looked like.”

Now, as the regular season comes to a close, some athletes will continue to train for the New England Division III Championships and the NCAA Division III Championships. However, the men’s team will first compete in the Valentine Invitational held this weekend at Boston University.