Amherst Results

Performer of the Meet: Selasie Krampa '13

On the morning of January 21, 2012, the Lord Jeff Men’s Track and Field team proceeded slowly south on a snow-covered I-91 to Middletown, CT to compete in an invitational at Wesleyan University.  It would be their only slow effort of the day as they battled the cumulative fatigue of a three-week training block of daily double practice with no true recovery.  Running events began for the Jeffs on the straightaway with the 60m dash.  Junior newcomer Selasie Krampa led a trio of teammates with a personal best time of 7.35, not quite fast enough to make finals, but good for 10th place.  Krampa would return in the 200m dash, where he would again lead a trio of teammates to take 10th in an impressive 23.93, making him the first Jeff to sneak until 24.00 this season.  Sophomore Javier Paulino also ran an outstanding one-lap race, striding powerfully to a 24.21 finish – a heat victory and his fastest time on the season.  The mile run saw two Amherst harriers claim top-eight finishes.  Junior Andrew Erskine closed out his eight-lap race in 4:23.52 to finish fourth in the event for the second consecutive week while first year Lucas “California Sun” Lebovitz finished eighth in his first collegiate crack at the event.  The afternoon’s subsequent long sprint events again witnessed gritty performances by our story’s heroes.  Senior captain Ben Scheetz won the 400m dash all alone in the first heat, while a few seconds behind him one of the day’s more intense races was taking place as first-year Nick Codola dug deep to take second in the heat over Cobleskill’s Melique Garcia by a margin of .18 seconds.  The 600m run witnessed senior captain Chris Erickson slip under the 1:30 barrier for the first time this season, as he paced a group of Jeffs that included classmate Pete Skurman and sophomore Dan Burnett, who put on the ol’ spikes for the first time in over a year in what looks as if it will be a promising comeback from injury.  In the 800m run, first year Romey Sklar ran a smooth four-lapper, throwing down a 58-second final quarter mile to grab fifth in the event, leading classmate Alex Durkee and sophomore Charlie Reighard.  The first heat of the 1,000m run offered a tightly contested race among three Jeffs.  Junior Pat Grimes led the field for most of the race with Ben Scheetz navigating a tight pack to remain just on his shoulder and sophomore Matt Melton less than a second behind them at the 800.  In the final lap of the race, Scheetz opened up his commanding stride to take his second victory on the day in 2:30.83 on his double.  Grimes would capture third and Melton sixth.  Junior Eli Howe would capture 10th from the second heat, achieving a two-second PR.  The afternoon’s final open event, the 3,000m run, would end with three Jeffs in the top 10.  First-year Greg Turissini led them in 8:53.42 for fifth, with junior Dillon Buckley a few meters behind in 9th – in a substantial personal best time 8:57.89 – and first year KC “King Cool” Fussell in 10th.  The meet’s relay races saw the Amherst DMR team of Pat Grimes, Matt Melton, Romey Sklar, and Andrew Erskine run the 4,000m race in 10:35.44 for first place bolstered by solid splits across the board.
In the field, first year Mark Cork notched eighth in both the long and triple jumps, nailing a personal best jump in the triple of 12.94m, one centimeter under the DIII New England standard.