Jamaica, N.Y. (April 22, 2006)--After Saturday's portion of the Metropolitan Championships came to close at St. John's University, the members of Manhattan Men's Track and Field had to have been feeling pretty good, and it was not only because they had an opportunity to get out of the cold, rainy weather that postponed the final four events of the meet until Monday. The Jaspers had to have also been feeling good about their chances of winning back-to-back Metropolitan Men's Outdoor Team Titles. Leading second-place Southern Connecticut by a 146-122 margin through 17 events, Manhattan has put itself in prime position to take the crown, especially since the four events moved to Monday are the jumping events, where
Nick Newman and
Dexter Jules will be looking for their second straight championships in the long jump and triple jump respectively. The women's squad, who sits fifth amongst the twelve-school field with 41 points, will also have an opportunity to pick up points in the jumps on Monday in hope of bettering its position in the standings.
Click Here To View Results Through 17 EventsThe Manhattan men built an early lead at the meet by racking up points in Friday's throwing events which saw a 1-2-3-4 Manhattan sweep of the hammer throw.
Zoran Loncar posted the best performance on a chilly afternoon, capturing the individual crown with a mark of 61.26.
Paul Peulich,
Anders Constantin, and
Michael Freeman claimed the second, third, and fourth spots in the event, earning Manhattan 29 points in the hammer alone.
Manhattan also had four scorers in the shot put with Indoor All-American
Milan Jotanovic, a sophomore, leading the way by capturing the crown with a mark of 18.51m. Jotanovic dominated the rest of the field as his winning mark was nearly two meters better than the runner up's best throw. Freshman Tom Cushing threw his way to a fourth place finish by adding 15 centimeters to his seed mark with a heave of 15.35m. Sophomore Rich Reuter and Constantin finished in seventh and eighth respectively. Jotanovic was also responsible for Manhattan's lone points in the discus throw, as he took seventh with a mark of 41.19m
Matt Krauss and newcomer Nikolay Tkachenko scored in the javelin for the Jaspers. Krauss took fourth with a throw of 47.24m, while Tkachenko finished in teh seventh slot with a mark of 42.26m. Tkachenko, who captured the 2006 MAAC Indoor Championship in the event, is also expected to contend for the pole vault title on Monday.
Although the Jaspers were not four scorers deep in any event on Saturday, Manhattan was able to maintain its lead and increase its point total on the gloomy day with four Jaspers capturing gold along with the 4x100m relay team. With
Kelton Cumberbatch leading off, followed by Darnell Douglas,
Dexter Jules, and Dennis Street, the 4x100 squad edged So. Connecticut by 25 hundredths of a second with a time of 42.47. Two of the individual first place finishers were hurdlers, while the other two crowns came in the distance events.
Joe Cruz took the title in the 110m hurdles at 14.95s, while Cumberbatch logged a time of 54.90s to capture the 400m hurdles championship. The 5K crown went to Manhattan's
Joe McElhoney, as the sophomore runner held off Michael Petrina of Stony Brook by 1.2 seconds with a mark of 15:23.34.
Todd Raymond finished with more than 15 seconds in hand on the runner-up in the 3000m steeple chase at 9:53.55.
The Lady Jaspers scored a nice portion of their 41 points with two second place finishes by thrower Marina Liander and multi-athlete Jasmine Rogers. Liander finished as the runner up to Blessing Eguw of St. John's in the hammer throw with a mark of 49.47m, while Rogers posted the second-best time in the 100m hurdles at 15.07s. Both Liander and Rogers also picked up points for the Lady J's in other events. After taking eighth place in the discus, Liander was Manhattan's top finisher in the shot put with a heave of 11.88m, which placed her fourth in the field. Also scoring in the shot was none other than Rogers who took seventh.
Jessica Jansson earned the eighth place point as well.
Rogers also was the final leg of the 4x100m relay squad that took third place on the day with a time of 50.23m, which was undoubtedly a product of the weather, considering the quartet's seed time was substantially lower.
The Lady Jaspers will most likely increase their team score by a healthy margin on Monday as defending Met Pole Vault Champion Jenna Daly will be in action. Jumper Tiina Magi, who recently broke the school's indoor and outdoor triple jump records and has challenged the high jump record, will participate in at least two of the four remaining events. Last year, Magi took second in the high jump and third in the triple jump at the Outdoor Met Championships, but she is already well ahead of last year's pace.
