Saturday, December 19, 2015

Elis Notch Five First-Place Finishes at Yale Season Opener

 

Buy Now
Alexander McDonald. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)
Five Freshmen Make Yale Debut at Home Meet

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Yale men's track and field team raced its first meet of the 2015-2016 season on Saturday at the Yale Season Opener in Coxe Cage. While this meet was unscored, the Bulldogs ran a strong first meet, with five first-place finishes and numerous strong starts.
Although many upperclassmen sprinters and distance athletes did not compete, virtually all of the Bulldogs' throwers and jumpers competed. In these events, the strength of the Elis' recruiting class showed very clearly, as well as the talent of the upperclassmen on the team.
Sophomore Mike Koller and senior Brendan Sullivan claimed first place in the high jump and pole vault, respectively. Koller jumped 1.99m in a promising start to his season, as this mark is a personal best. Freshman Cody Clements finished close behind Koller, with a jump of 1.94m for second place. Sullivan vaulted 4.95m, easily claiming first place. His closest competitor was freshman Austin Laut (Oak Ridge HS, El Dorado Hills, California), who vaulted 4.65m (15-3) for second place.
Freshman Jimmy Shih competed in his first collegiate meet on Saturday, placing second in the triple jump (13.71m) and third in the long jump (6.48m). He was followed by sophomore Carl Mansson, who placed fifth in the triple jump (12.34m) and fourth in the long jump (6.33m).
The Elis also performed well in the middle distance events, sweeping the top three places in the 1,000-meter run and the top two in the 500-meter dash. Senior Alexander McDonald won the 500-meter dash and senior Tim Cox won the 1,000-meter run.
McDonald ran a 1:05.78, just barely edging out freshman Connor Hill, who finished second in 1:05.81. Junior Chandler Crusan finished fourth in 1:07.20 for a personal best of more than two seconds, while junior Austin Puleo finished seventh (1:08.99). Cox won the 1,000-meter run in 2:33.91, followed by sophomore Michael Yuan (2nd—2:34.67) and senior John Mahoney (3rd—2:36.25). Both Yuan and Mahoney ran personal bests in this event.
In the field events, junior Luke Persichetti led the team, placing third in the shot put with a mark of 14.72m. Sophomore Jake Hoops placed fourth (14.37m) and freshman Marcus Downs placed eighth (13.39m) in his first collegiate meet.
Sophomore Paedyn Gomes and junior Austin Loewen represented Yale in the hurdles, placing second and third, respectively. Gomes finished with a time of 8.19, while Loewen finished in 8.51.
The Elis' final win of the day came in the 4x400-meter relay. The relay team beat the second-place finisher from Southern Connecticut by almost a second and a half with a time of 3:22.08.
Junior Torren Peebles was the only sprinter to compete for the Elis in the 60-meter dash, placing sixth (7.17).
Full results can be found here.
Report by Joseph Battles '18, Yale Sports Publicity

No comments: