Maine Lakes News

The Bates men's track and field team won the signature 4x800 "Blackout" relay, dominated the throws, and impressed with their depth, on their way to a fourth consecutive indoor state championship Saturday at Merrill Gymnasium. 

Bates tallied 205.5 points, good for first place out of eight teams. Runner-up Bowdoin finished with 185 points. Senior captain Liam Byrne (Ridgefield, Conn.) earned the Peter Goodrich Memorial Most Valuable Field Athlete Award thanks to victories in the Peter Doran 35-pound weight throw and the Al Nicholson shot put to pace the Bobcats. 

Byrne led a 1-2-3 Bates finish in the shot put that saw him take the top spot with a heave of 49-9 (15.16m) on his sixth attempt. Junior Jacob Goff (Scarborough, Maine) earned second place with a throw of 47-8 (14.53m) on his second attempt and junior James Guinee (Topsfield, Mass.) placed third with a monster performance, recording a personal best distance of 46-7.5 (14.21m) on his final toss of the day.

Byrne and Goff placed 1-2 in the weight throw, with Byrne's top effort of 56-10.75 (17.34m) on his first attempt holding up for the victory. Goff's best throw came on his last attempt and traveled 52-3.75 (15.94m), good for second place. Guinee came in fourth at 48-9 (14.86m), scoring additional points for Bates.

Elsewhere in the meet:

• The Bates 4x800 "Blackout" relay team of senior Owen Glover (Andover, Mass.), first-year Jackson Monz (North Logan, Utah), sophomore Aidan Rooney (Bay Shore N.Y.), and junior Ned Farrington (Cohasset, Mass.) won the signature event of the day, racing to the finish in 8:14.20 in almost total darkness at Merrill Gym. The race is a tribute to a power outage that occurred at Bates during the 2001 edition of the 4x800, also won by the Bobcats.
• Sophomore Krishna Kakani (Monroe, N.J.) led a 1-2 Bates finish in the 5,000 meters, recording a personal record time of 15:30.80. Junior Victor Kering (Eldoret, Kenya) finished second in 15:32.81. 
• Senior Derek Shen (Bellevue, Wash.) nearly matched his school record with a time of 7.03 seconds in the 60-meter dash. He officially placed second in a photo finish with Bowdoin's Ajay Olson, who also timed in at 7.03 seconds.
• Senior captain Colby Stakun-Pickering (Wellesley, Mass.) took second to Olson in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.72 seconds.
• Monz and Rooney went 2-3 in the Warren Randall 600 meters, with Monz crossing the finish line in 1:24.70 and Rooney recording a time of 1:25.50. 
• Farrington finished runner-up in the 1,000 meters in 2:33.48. The Bobcats also took the fourth through seventh spots in the race, showing off their depth.
• The Bates John Corcoran 4x400 relay team of sophomore Truman Williams (Montclair, N.J.), senior Robby Griffin (Norwell, Mass.), first-year Evan Migdole (Westbrook, Conn.), and senior Peter Ackley (New Albany, Ohio) took second place in 3:29.10.
• Ackley and Griffin went 3-4 in the 400 meters, with Ackley crossing the finish line in 51.96 seconds and Griffin close behind at 52.04 seconds.
• Sophomore Cam Stathos (Wellesley, Mass.) and Glover went 3-4 in the 800 meters, with Stathos recording a time of 1:59.76 and Glover finishing in 2:00.05.
• Senior Gabe Coffey (Bangor, Maine) led a pack of Bobcats in the mile, placing third in 4:26.60. Bates also took the next four spots in the race.

The Bobcats are back in action next Saturday at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, held at Boston University Track & Tennis Center.

Original source can be found here