Indoor Track and Field Running with Big Finishes

The men’s and women’s indoor track team competed in the Branwen Smith-King Invitational held by Tufts University last Saturday. 19 teams came out to compete including rivals of Plymouth State and even a few divisions two schools. The women’s team ended with a 14^th place finish and the men’s with 8^th.

Seniors Warren Bartlett (Loudon NH) and Sam Brunnette (Newport Center VT) both dominated in the events they competed in. Bartlett grabbed first place position in the 1000-meter run by outrunning his opponents by over three seconds. Brunnette had a big day by getting the title of the third fastest runner in the country in the 3000-meter. His converted time all together was 8:19:99 and was one of his fastest runs this season.

Sophomore Terrell Lewis made it into national records as his accumulated points in the heptathlon brought him up to 12^th in the nation. He also went to win the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.75. His 7^th place finish in the pole vault set him back but he gained momentum again as he went to take fourth in the 1000-meter run. His classmate, Tim Gray (Derby VT) took 12^th in the weight throw, after launching it 13.74 feet. Marcus Roper (Cornish NH) set a new personal record for himself after throwing shotput 14.13 meters, giving him a 7^th place finish as well. Nate Belanger (Newmarket NH) and Ben Platt (Manchester NH) both jumped on the new personal records train after racing in the 600-meter run. Respectively finishing 7^th and 9^th with times only split by two seconds.

Onto the women’s team, Eve Bagley (Holliston MA) grabbed a new personal best after competing in the 800-meter run, getting a new time of 2:30:81. She said that she went out faster and that definitely helped her capture this personal win. She also commented that she “…felt that my performance was good for this point in the season and is showing that my training is starting to kick in.”  She also said that the team’s performance is “getting better and better each weekend we compete and that’s exactly what we want leading up to championship season.”

Also among Bagley breaking records, classmates Kim Bowles (Wonalancet NH) and Paige Boudreau (Dayton ME) set new records for themselves. Bowles raced in the 3000-meter and her times of 11:35:56 was not only good enough for a 25^th place finish, but also was almost 20 seconds better than her previous time. Boudreau got herself a 14^th place finish in shot put with a distance of 10.3 meters. The freshman had just set a new PR for herself in shotput the week before of 9.96 meters. Diana Perez took 5^th place in the long jump with would be the women’s highest place finish of the day. Deborah Askokeji (Poughkeepsie NY) would be the last Panther to grab a new record in the 600-meter run, her time 2:02:98.

Over the break, the indoor track team competed in the Middlebury Winter Classic and Smith Invitational. The women coming out with a 4^th and 10^th place finish respectively and the men taking the Middlebury Classic with 1^st and Smith, 9^th.

The teams will host the Panther Invitational this Saturday, start time set for 11 a.m.

Bagley finishes with this hope for before the playoffs: “As a team, we need to continue putting in the hard work and effort that we’ve had since the first day, so when the conference meet rolls around we are confident and ready to compete.”