Gators Prepare for Hopeful Five-Peat

May 3, 2007

DELAWARE, Ohio – As the Allegheny College Gators prepare for the North Coast Athletic Conference championships, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, they look to a string of four previous league championships as the blueprint for this years’ championship run. Depth in events had helped the Gators win the previous four championships, and will be the key component for a run at the fifth.

The scoring portion of the meet starts with the discus and long jump, with the two events commencing at noon. Devin Cruea (Geneva, Ohio/Geneva) has the league’s best throw of 152-6, while the duo of Matt Yurky (Homer City, Pa./Homer-Center) and Joe McMahon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) looking to move up from their third and fourth place seedings in the long jump after leaping to distances of 21-8 and 21-6.25 earlier in the season.

Following the opening two events, are the shot put and pole vault starting at 2:30 p.m., events in which the Gators have the individual leader heading into the championships. Frank Tupta (University Heights, Ohio/Hawken) leads the conference pack in the first of the two aforementioned events with a toss of 50-4 and teammate Cruea is second after a throw of 47-9 earlier this season with Pat Confer (Bradford, Pa./Bradford) looking for an All-Conference honor, as the senior comes into the championships ranked fifth in the league with a distance of 45-4.5. In the pole vault, sophomore Peter Sotherland (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central) leads the field by clearing 14-1.25, while teammate Erich Wittmer (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley), the NCAC runner-up during the indoor season is also in the field.

After the four field events, the running event preliminaries begin, starting with the 110-meter hurdles, where sophomore Yurky is ranked sixth in the league with a time of 15.71. A pair of sprint events, the 400- and 100-meter dashes follow, with Alex Gorski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) leading a Gator trio that includes Ben Eyer (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Central) and Jamie Drab (North East, Pa./North East). Gorski has a top time this season of 53.17, 13th best in the league with Drab and Eyer, among the Gators’ strong middle-distance crew, will be running the one-lap event for the first time this season.

McMahon leads four Gators seeded in the top seven in the shorter of the aforementioned sprint races after a time of 11.24 earlier this year, the second fastest time in the league this season. Josh Brannan (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) has a time a hundredths of a second behind McMahon for third. Marcus Solomon (Rockwell, Texas/Dallas Christian) and Chas Moore-Seymore (Buffalo, N.Y./St. Francis) sit in fifth and seventh, respectively, with times of 11.30 and 11.45.

Garret Piispanen (Fruita, Colo./Fruita Monument) has the fourth fastest half-mile time of 1:55.8, less than a second from second place, while Craig Ball’s (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) time of 1:57.86 is the eighth fastest time coming into the competition. Also looking for a spot in the finals is Alex Rowland (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel Area), whose time of 2:01.07 is the 15th fastest time in the league.

Yurky is the team’s only competitor in the 400-meter hurdles, and his time of 57.82 is the eighth best time in the league heading into the competition. Brannan, Solomon and Moore-Seymore look to advance to the finals in the 200-meter dash, with the trio ranked seventh, ninth and 11th, respectively. The meet Is concluded with the 10,000-meter run, the final scored event of the first day, with Chris Corkins (Horseheads, N.Y./Horseahds), who has a season-best time of 30:37.15, and Marco Dozzi (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley), with a best time of 31:00.59, NCAA Division III provisional qualifiers in the event, lead the field by well over a minute. Jakeb Zimmerman (Leechburg, Pa./The Kiski School) is ranked ninth in a time of 33:55.12, well within striking distance of a scoring place.

The second day begins at 10:00 a.m. with the hammer throw, where Confer, the school record holder, sits in second place and teammate Cruea in third heading into the week. Tupta looks to round out his championships in the event, where he is seeded eighth.

A little over two hours later the javelin and triple jumps are set to begin, where the Gators’ Bobby Campbell (West Newbury, Mass./Pentucket Regional) leads the conference in the javelin with a toss of 182-6, while Sotherland is seeded 10th after a throw of 151-0. McMahon paces the field in the triple jump with a near-qualifying leap of 45-7.25, a foot further than second place. Yurky, in his fourth event of the competition, looks to earn an all-conference honor in the triple jump, as he is seeded fourth in the field in the event.

Matt Smith (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville has the second fastest time in the 3,000-meter steeple chase with a time of 9:31.70 while teammates Kurtis Falcone (Mannsville, N.Y./South Jefferson), who has run a time of 10:33.72 and Tom Lee (Mt. Vernon, Ohio/Mt. Vernon), who has not raced in the event this season, also look to help the Gators score in the race.

The 4x100-meter relay is the second running event of the second day, with the Gators sitting as the favorite, .35 seconds ahead of the second seeded squad. An event later, in the 1,500-meter run, the Gators have three runners in the fast heat, led by Ryan Place (Meshoppen, Pa./Elk Catholic), who has run a time of 4:00.23, while Ben Mourer (Chicora, Pa./Karns City) and Ryan Hanson (Presto, Pa./Chartiers Valley) have run times of 4:03.26 and 4:07.22, respectively.

The final individual race of the competition, the 5,000-meter run, might well be the strongest race of the competition for the Gators, as the team has eight entrants, including six in the top seven seed times. Place leads the way with a provisional qualifying time of 14:31.02, with Mourer (14:54.70), Corkins (14:57.93) and Dozzi (14:59.29) each running under 15 minutes at some time during the season. Hanson and Matt Hoy (Moon Twp., Pa./Moon) are sixth and seventh with seed times of 15:14.53 and 15:23.01, respectively.

In the final race of the competition, the 4x400-meter relay, the team has the fifth fasted seed time of the competition with a 3:30.49.

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