Under the fluorescent lights of the Merrill Indoor Track on the campus of Bates College, colleges and universities from around New England spent two days battling it out for athletic supremacy.
Although it was merely the Bobcats’ second meet of the season, there were little signs of rust as the ‘Cats completely dominated their DII and DIII opponents. The men’s team won a staggering twelve events while the women’s team won thirteen. The Husson University Eagles, Saint Joseph’s College Monks, and Franklin Pierce University Ravens simply could not handle the onslaught of athletic talent exhibited by the Bobcats on Fri- day (1/17) and Saturday (1/18).
The women’s team owned the track on Saturday—winning the majority of events and obtain- ing several clean sweeps. From the beginning, it was all Bates as Paige Rabb ’20 won the 400-me- ter dash with a time of 1:01.05, followed by 3 more Bobcats to obtain a 1-2-3-4 sweep—a rare feat suggesting that this year’s season could be something truly special.
The ‘Cats continued their supremacy on the field by triumphing in the 200-meter dash, won by Cici Conroy ’23, and the 1000-meter, won by Vanessa Paolella ’21. Elise Lambert ’22 lead a Bobcat 1-2- 3 sweep in the 600-meter dash with a time of 1:39.96. Winning three events and sweeping two was certainly a milestone for the Bobcats, but the team remained hungry for more as dominant performances were abound.
In her second meet as a Bates student, Lily Harding ’23 re- bounded from her disappointing 4th place finish in the 3,000-me- ter last week by winning the mile outright with a time of 5:29.10, followed closely by sophomore Tara Ellard ’22. Additionally, the Bobcats won the 3000-meter dash after first-year Jordan Wil- son won with a blistering time of 10:35.51. The ‘Cats women’s re- lay teams followed a similar trend, with both the 4×400 and 4×800 teams taking home first prize.
Off the track, the ‘Cats excelled as first place was taken home in the long jump (Adelaide Armah ’23), high jump (Jordan Tveter ’22), and pole vault (Lily Simmons ’22).
The Men’s Track and Field Team also responded to last week’s second place finish by convincingly and authoritatively dismantling their New England opponents across many events.
The ‘Cats middle-distance runners especially showed out over the weekend, completely dominating the majority of running events. Peter Ackley ’23 won the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.40, while John Mieszczanski ’22 won the 800-meter with a time of 2:00.52 and Jack- son Elkins won the 1000-meter with a time of 2:37.90.
On the whole, one of the best performances on the day was from Senior captain Beaufils Kimpolo-Pene ’20 who won the 60-meter hurdles (8.83), the high jump (6’0.75”), and the long jump (20’11.25”). Kimpolo-Pene’s convincing performance gave him the most points of any Bates athlete, male or female.
Another notable performance was that of Justin Levine ’21. Finishing first in the 5000-meter run, Levine secured a personal record (PR) time—14:58.75. Levine’s marvelous performance averaged a mile time of 4:49. This incredible feat places Levine at #14 nationally amongst DIII men. The men’s relay teams, much like the women’s, completely eviscerated their competition.
The men’s 4×400 and 4×800 each took first place with times of 3:43.72 and 8:18.05, respectively.
Local strongman and mover-of-worlds John Rex ’21 continued his supremacy in the weight throw with yet another first-place finish. Rex is currently ranked at #2 nationally for this competition and ranked #1 for most intimidating person on Bates campus.
The Bobcats will look to continue their winning ways as they travel to Boston University this Saturday (1/24) to continue the upward trajectory in the John Thomas Terrier Classic.
