The USM men’s indoor track and field team finished second out of the 66 teams competing in the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Division III Championship which was held at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. on Friday and Saturday.
Southern Maine was locked in at fourth place after the first day of the two-day meet. Only three points separated them from the two teams that were ahead of them.
The Huskies got a solid performance out of their top athletes, including senior James Spaulding (Lewiston) who broke his own school record in the Pentathlon, and finished third in the event with a score of 3,435 in the five event race. Not far behind was Evan Davis (Fairhaven,Vt.) who placed fifth. Senior Justin Richardson (Turner) took home a third place finish in the mile with a time of 4:18.30, and sophomore Tim Even (Stoneham) came in eighth place with a time of 4.22.60. Sophomore Parker Chipman (Pownal) grabbed second in the 500 meters with his time of 1:07.23. The distance medley team consisting of Richardson, junior Corey Gobbi (Haverhill, Mass.), senior Jimmy Sawyer (Gorham) and Even was able to record a second place finish in a close race with Bowdoin College, coming in just six seconds behind the winning team from Williams College.
To force the tie, it came down to the last event of the meet, the 4 x 800 meter race. Breaking a USM record of their own, junior Dan Pontbriand (Auburn), sophomores Brett Baker (Sanford) and Alex Gomes (Peabody, Mass.), and junior George Foster (Lewiston) finished second with a time of seven minutes and 54 seconds, which was just 0.02 seconds behind the winning team from Rutgers University-Camden.
After a close meet from start to finish the USM men’s indoor track and field athletes await their NCAA Nationals fate, as the school representatives will be announced Monday.