Gators Look for 6th Straight Title

Feb 29, 2008

MEADVILLE, Pa.- As the Allegheny College men’s track team prepares for the indoor North Coast Athletic Conference, it will need a strong performance from its distance squad, which one the cross country conference title in the fall, to help pace the team to their sixth consecutive league title.

“When you’ve won five consecutive championships, it puts pressure on you to keep that streak alive,” said head Allegheny track & field coach Bill Ross. “I told the team that our goal is the outdoor conference championships, not the indoor. If we do happen to win, that is great, but we really don’t focus on the indoor championship.

Three of the top four times in the 800, the top three milers, the top two times in the 3,000 and the top 5,000 will help to ease the pressure on Ohio Wesleyan, who boasts similar early dominance in the sprinting events.

Leading the way in the quartet of events is senior Ryan Place (Meshoppen, Pa./Elk Lake), who is seeded first in the 3,000, second in the mile and fifth in the 5,000. Ahead of him in the last two are his teammates, Tony Dipre (Twinsburg, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) in the mile and Zac Ross (Meadville, Pa./Meadville Area) in the 5k. Dipre set the school record in the mile in the season opener at Kent State, breaking the record set by Place a season earlier. Ross, son of head coach Bill, is the conference leader in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs.

Dipre nearly added an 800-meter record to his resume earlier in the season, and sits second in the league behind the Wabash national qualifier Geoff Lambert, with teammates Craig Ball (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) and Garret Piispanen (Fruita, Colo./Fruita Monument) sitting third and fourth heading into the championships. In addition to sitting third in the 800, Ball is also the third fastest qualifier in the mile, just over four seconds behind Dipre.

Also running for a scoring finish in the mile will be first-year runners Jeramie Parker (Middletown, Md./Middletown) and Andrew Mahone (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) who are seeded sixth and 10th each. Matt Hoy (Moon Township, Pa./Moon), Tom Lee (Mt. Vernon, Ohio/Mt. Vernon) and Jakeb Zimmerman (Leechburg, Pa./The Kiski School) are looking to push into the top eight overall in the 3,000. Adding depth in the 5,000-meter run is Zimmerman, Lee, Matt Lacombe (Highland Heights, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) and Ryan Hanson (Presto, Pa./Chartiers Valley).

Those four races can make or break the Gators at the championships, as the team will use its experience and success from the cross country season to give itself the necessary push for the win. “Having the fall success that we did helps with the motivation that the team has,” said Ross. “We will want that success to continue - not so much the winning of particular races, but how fast can we run. We are really focused on the training and trying to run as we possibly can in each event. The nice thing is that with a large squad, there is not a lot of crossover. We have a distinctive distance group and a middle distance group. It will help keep the camaraderie that is built up from the cross country side and the fact that they will keep challenging each other.”

In addition to the distance team, Allegheny senior Frank Tupta (University Heights, Ohio/Hawken) is a clear favorite to win the shot put, leading the field by nearly two feet further than the nearest competitor. Tupta’s only event of the indoor season is the shot put, with there being three more events during the outdoor season. Despite having only one event, it is his leadership in that event that Ross likes to have for the squad.

“He doesn’t have a lot of people underneath him to lead, but where his leadership comes in is that the rest of the team really trusts in his ability to do well,” said the head coach. “The team is very confident in his abilities, which only helps that everyone else will know that he can do his part in helping the team. They won’t have to worry about scoring enough points in the shot put.”

Looking to help the sprint crew at the championships is Josh Brannan (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) who is seeded in the top seven in both the 55- and the 200-meter dashes, seventh in the former and third in the latter. Chas Moore-Seymore (Buffalo, N.Y./St. Francis) is in a similar position, ninth in the 55 and 10th in the 200, looking to push into the finals after the opening day of competition.

Junior Matt Yurky (Homer City, Pa./Homer-Center) is seeded sixth in the hurdles, while sitting seventh in the triple jump, an event he earned All-NCAC honors in a season ago, and 11th in the long jump. Teammate Joe McMahon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin), the defending Field Event Athlete of the Year, has the top triple jump heading into the competition, and the fourth best long jump.

Peter Sotherland (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central) leads a group of three Gators pole vaulters, sitting in fourth place heading into the opening day, with Cedric Gamble (Boalsburg, Pa./State College) and Erich Wittmer (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) in 8th and a tie for 9th, respectively.

Events get underway on Friday at 2:00 p.m.

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