Sports

Masters earns most outstanding rookie award

Track teams finish fifth, sixth at conference championship

By Derek McKinley

Posted on Feb. 26, 2009, at 12:00 a.m.

Amy Brooks

Allyson Howatt competes in the Maine Open on Feb. 7. She was the anchor leg on the ECAC-qualifying 4x400 team.

After a difficult Valentine’s meet at Boston University, the University of Maine men’s and women’s track team headed back to Boston University this past weekend to take on the Terriers, along with the rest of America East, to decide the conference champion for the 2008-09 season.

The men’s team finished sixth, with Albany taking top honors, and the women’s team finished fifth as the host Terriers walked away champions. UMaine took home one individual men’s championship. Freshman leader Riley Masters won the 3,000-meter run, finishing a shade under the standing record time in 8:17.46, qualifying him for the Inter Collegiate Association of Amateur Atheltics of America meet later in the season and earning him the conference’s Most Outstanding Rookie award.

“I try to go into races with the mindset that I can win,” Masters said. “I’ve never been so excited after finishing a race. Winning a conference title was very thrilling.”

The men also got big performances from sprint duo junior Landis Williams and senior Jhamal Fluellen, who took fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 55-meter dash. Junior jumper Jeff Ramos, the defending conference champion in the high jump, managed only a sixth-place finish. Sophomore James Berry and senior Mark Liimakka took fourth and fifth in the pole vault with matching vaults of 15′ 3″, and freshman Donald Clark earned sixth in the shotput with a toss of 48′ 4″.

Vicki Tolton was the lone representative for the women, laying down a blistering 54.31 in the 400-meter dash, breaking her own school record and the conference record, which stood for 16 years. Her time qualified provisionally for the upcoming NCAA meet, defending her title from the 2007-08 season. Tolton was also one leg of the second-place, Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifying 4×400 team.

“I certainly reached my goal so far for the season, and I am really excited to see myself set higher goals and see where they take me,” Tolton said. “I think my time, setting the new conference record and qualifying for NCAA’s is still kind of a shock right now. I’m extremely excited.”

The anchor leg of that relay team, Allyson Howatt, earned sixth place in the 55-meter dash (7.24) and fourth in the 200-meter dash (24.89). Her 200-meter time qualified her for the ECAC meet later in the season.

“Overall I was disappointed in my individual performances. I thought I was ready to run faster this weekend, but it just didn’t fall together for me,” Howatt said. “Luckily, I still have New England’s and ECAC’s to improve my indoor times before moving outdoor.”

Junior middle distance runner Vanessa Letourneau finished second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:13.80 and also anchored an ECAC qualifying relay team, bringing the women’s 4×800 title to UMaine.

“The 4×800 was awesome. We did not expect to win at all,” Letourneau said. “Everyone was so tired going in because we had all raced that day, and all four of us girls PR’d in our individual events, but we were able to put together a great race and everyone ran faster splits than we have all season.”

A second-place finish from sophomore Rebecca Even in the weight throw (51′ 8.25″), third-place finishes from freshman Katherine McGeoghan in the high jump (5′ 2.25″), senior Stephanie Jette in the 1,000-meter run (2:55.36) and a fourth-place finish from freshman Corey Conner in the mile run (4:59.77) all contributed to UMaine’s success.

“At first I was upset with the way I performed in high jump, but as I look back it is quite an accomplishment to place third in America East as a freshman, and I’m happy with it,” said McGeoghan.

“The heavy competition made the meet all the more exciting because you just wanted to do so well and get in there and compete with the best,” Conner said. “It’s definitely intimidating and scary when you’re running against all these great runners and schools, but it also helps because it gives you a lot of adrenaline and pumps you up a lot.”

The teams will head to BU for the third time in as many weeks to compete in the New England Championships on Feb. 28th.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.