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The University of Maine men’s and women’s indoor track teams have both had successful beginnings to their 2003-’04 campaigns.
Each team began its season on Dec. 13, 2003 with a dual home meet against the University of New Hampshire, and both teams came out on top. The men’s team captured a 100-80 victory over the Wildcat men, while the women’s margin of victory was 102-89. Four meet records were set by the Black Bear women, and sophomore Kristin Vidlak was a part of two. Individually, Vidlak finished in first place in the 1000-meter run in a meet record time of 2:59.73. She also joined junior Heather Jovanelli, freshman Hana Pelletier and senior Janeen Shephard to set a meet record in the 4×880 relay. Pelletier later added another meet record of her own, posting a time of 2:16.54 in the 800-meter run. The final meet record of the day was set by Maine’s senior Claire Poliquin, who notched a 1.70 meter jump in the high jump.
Other individual winners in the women’s meet against UNH were junior Silvia Scaldaferri, Jovanelli, sophomore Amanda Virgets, sophomore Kathryn Souviney and senior Katie Page.
The men’s meet featured the Black Bears winning nine of the meet’s 18 events. Both throwing events, the shot put and the weight throw, were won by Maine, as senior Andre Dubois captured the shot put, and junior Anthony Morgan led the field in the weight throw. Other field event winners were sophomores Jesse Ludwig in the long jump and Troy Irvine in the pole vault. Other events were won by sophomore Nate Holmes, junior Mike Lansing, senior Joel Evans, sophomore Jeff Caron and junior Paul Rupprecht.
Following the dual meet against UNH, the Black Bears had a little over a month off before traveling to Dartmouth College on Jan. 15 to participate in the Dartmouth Relays. The men’s team finished in fifth place at the meet behind the winners from the University of Illinois, the hosts from Dartmouth and the teams from Williams College and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
The men’s distance medley relay team tallied the schools only first place finish on the day, as they held off UML to win in a time of 10:18.40. The 4×800 relay team finished a close second place to the winning team from Illinois. The top individual performance was turned in by sophomore Ken Savary, who claimed third place in the triple jump and 11th place in the long jump. Andre Dubois pitched in with a sixth place shot put and ninth place weight throw. Other notable finishes were sophomore Scott O’Connor’s 12th place finish in the 800 meters, right before 14th place Jeff Oliver.
On the women’s side at Dartmouth, the Black Bears finished in 9th place, behind the winners from Dartmouth. The top results were a pair of second place finishes from the Bears, as the distance medley relay team finished second, as did shot putter Katie Page. Junior Rebecca Culver finished the 3000-meter race in fourth place, Kathryn Souviney was fifth in the pentathlon and Heather Jovanelli finished sixth in the mile.
After Dartmouth, the men’s team traveled to Boston University on Jan. 17 for the Terrier Cup. The Black Bears finished in second place overall with 60 points, trailing only the University of Rhode Island, and ahead of BU, Providence, Boston College, UNH, Holy Cross and Sacred Heart. Winning performances were turned in by Troy Irvine in the pole vault with a jump of 14 inches, freshman Christopher Warren with a high jump of 6-feet-4-inches and Anthony Morgan with a weight throw of 15.45 meters. Warren also finished second in the 55-meter hurdles, and Joel Evans was second in the 500-meter run. Third place was achieved by Andy Caron, mile, Paul Rupprecht, 800, and Sean Steinhagen, 1000.
While the men competed at BU, the women’s team traveled on to Brown University to compete in the Challenge Cup. While there, the Black Bears finished third behind URI and Brown, ahead of Holy Cross and Providence. Maine had six first place finishers in the meet: Claire Poliquin in the high jump, Kathryn Souviney in the 55-meter hurdles, Hana Pelletier in the 500-meter run, Katie Page in the shot put and the distance medley relay team.
This past weekend, both the men’s and women’s team traveled to URI to compete in the URI Invitational. Results from the men’s meet showed the Black Bears finishing in fifth place, trailing the University of Connecticut, URI, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. Maine beat Central Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac. The top placement achieved by the Bears was third by Andy Caron in the 800-meter run and the 4 x 800 meter relay team. Joel Evans and freshman Donnie Drake were fourth place finishers.
URI had not yet released the final results of the women’s results as of press time, except to report that the meet was won by UConn, and URI finished third.
Next up for the Maine men and women is a meet Jan. 31 at home against CCSU.
