Gator Men Run Away With NCAC Title

Mar 4, 2006

NCAC Final Results (PDF)
Photogallery

GRANVILLE, Ohio – After a dominating first day at the North Coast Athletic Indoor Conference Championships, the Allegheny College Gators did not back down in the finale of the event, as the squad picked up their fourth consecutive NCAC indoor track and field title in a record breaking team performance. Twenty-one members of the men’s team earned All-Conference honors by way of placing in the top three in their events.

Ryan Place (Meshoppen/Elk Lake) (left) was named the Distance Athlete of the Meet, while Sean Laird (Monroeville/Gateway) earned Field Event Athlete of the Meet honors and head coach Bill Ross NCAC Coach of the Year. Place picked up three conference championships in the two days, in the 5,000-meter run on Friday night and in the mile and the 3,000-meter run on Saturday. His time in the mile was a conference meet and school record. Laird placed second in the high jump, third in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump, as he was the only athlete to score in all three for the meet.

“We obviously didn’t come here looking to score a lot of points, it is just one of those things that whenever everything falls in place, things like that are going to happen,” said Ross. “That is exactly how it happened. We had some good breaks too – some other athletes who false started or got injured and weren’t able to compete – so that helped open the door a bit wider for us. The intention was to come in and win, and that was it.”

The squad smashed the record for points by a team, scoring 213, 33 more than the old record of 180, set in 1999. Also broken in the meet was margin of victory, as the Gators won by a total of 109 points, 18 more than the former record of 91, set by NCAC host Denison in the 1987 season (Denison 172, Wooster 81). Also with the victory, the Gators tie the NCAC record for most consecutive indoor championships with four, tying Ohio Wesleyan, while also tying the Bishops for total indoor championships with six.

Leading by 43-points over the second place team after the first day, the Gators wasted no time in furthering their lead, as Conrad Rapp (Medway, Mass./Worchester Academy) (left) led a trio of scorers in the pole vault with a first-place vault of 14-4. Erich Wittmer (Sewickley/Sewickley Academy) and Peter Sotherland (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central) cleared 13-8 and 13-0, respectively, giving the Gators a third and a fifth place finish in the event, pushing their lead to 52 over second place Ohio Wesleyan 76-to-24.

Laird started out his big day on Saturday with a third place finish in the long jump, leaping to a distance of 21-3.5. Joe McMahon (Pittsburgh/Baldwin) followed right behind the senior with a leap of 20-9, while Jamar Galbreath (Willingboro, N.J./Mercersburg Academy) placed sixth, leaping to a distance of 20-4.0, a quarter inch off of his season best. With the 14 points, the Gators continued to forge ahead with their advantage over the field, leading 90-34 over second place Ohio Wesleyan.

The Gators took their lead to 79 in the high jump, 113-34, as the Blue and Gold took second, third, fourth and fifth place, led by Laird, who finished second by clearing 6-2. Justin Schwab (Kill Buck, N.Y./Salamanca) and Jake Hasson (Franklin/Franklin Area) each cleared 6-1, with Schwab earning third place based on misses, while Jake Hasson (Franklin/Franklin Area) took fifth place from two others based on misses.

Adding eight points with a second place finish was the 4x200-meter relay team of Jeremy Walker (Greensburg/Hempfield), Aaron Rape (Zelienople/Freedom Area), Troy Moles (Royersford/The Hill School) and Marcus Solomon (Rockwell, Texas/Dallas Christian), pushing the Gator advantage to 121-38.

A second straight sweep of a distance event gave the Gators 24 points in the mile, as Ryan Place (Meshoppen/Elk Lake), Matt Hoy (Moon Twp./Moon) and Ben Mourer (Chicora/Karns City) went 1, 2 and 3 in the event. Place’s time of 4:20.54 was a school record and set an NCAC Championships record, with Hoy and Mourer close behind with times of 4:23.81 and 4:25.64, each.

The Gator advantage shrunk in the 55-meter hurdles, as the Bishops took first, third and seventh, but the point total for the Blue and Gold increased, as Dave Griffin (Pittsburgh/Montour) (left) and Matt Yurky (Homer City/Homer Center) took fifth and sixth in the race, Griffin with a season-best time of 8.16 and Yurky with a time of 8.27.

The Blue and Gold put their foot back on the gas pedal in the 400-meter dash, as Aaron Rape (Zelienople/Freedom Area) took second with a time of 51.88. Troy Moles (Royersford/The Hill School) placed seventh with a time of 53.38, as the Gator lead grew to 100, at 162-62.

The distance medley relay team of Chris Carrier (Lyndhurst, Ohio/Charles F. Brush), Chas Moore-Seymore (Buffalo, N.Y./St. Francis), Matt Hoy (Moon Township/Moon) and Tom Lee (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) took third overall in a time of 10:41.66, as the Gators inched closer to the single meet scoring record with 168 points.

Jeremy Walker (Greensburg/Hempfield) (right) took fifth in the 55-meter dash, as the Gators lost ground in the total point standings, as Ohio Wesleyan took second and fourth place. Walker’s time of 6.80 tied his season best, as the Gators increased their point total to 172 points.

Garrett Piispanen’s (Fruita, Colo./Fruita Monument) second place finish in the 800-meter run helped the Gators tie the conference scoring record with 180 points, as he ran the four-lap event in a time of 2:00.63.

It was Rape’s fifth place finish in the 200-meter dash that secured the record for the Blue and Gold, as he and Marcus Solomon ran times of 23.47 and 23.52, Solomon’s good for a sixth place finish.

After securing the single-meet point record, the Gators once again took charge at the margin of victory record. Leading 187-94 heading into the 3,000-meter run, a 93-point advantage, the Gators took four of the eight scoring places (1,3,6,8), pushing the 93-point lead to 108 with one event remaining in the competition. Place picked up his third conference championship of the meet, racing to a time of 8:46.99, while Chris Corkins (Horseheads, N.Y.) took third with a time of 8:51.01. Mourer and Matt Smith (Sayville, N.Y.) rounded out the scorers for the Gators, placing sixth and eighth with times of 8:58.40 and 9:00.17, respectively.

With the championship well in hand, the Gators finished strong, taking 3rd in the 4x400-meter relay with the team of Piispanen, Moles, Ball and Rape sprinting to a time of 3:30.04.

Printable Version