Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"May 3, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
May
3, 2002
|
| Senior Clay Schwabe |
The Men’s track and field team capped an already impressive weekend action with a tremendous Sunday, saving the best moments for the final day of three days of action at the 2002 Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Sophomores Adam Burke and Jeff Weaver picked up top three finishes, while senior All-American Clay Schwabe was the top college finisher in the Olympic Development Mile.
Weaver opened the day for the Black Knights with a second-place effort in the Eastern triple jump. He finished one-quarter of an inch from the top of the podium, leaping 48 feet, 11.5 inches. Earnest Tymes of Montclair State was the individual champion. Weaver’s mark surpasses the 2002 IC4A qualifying standard.
Burke followed suite in the javelin, notching a third-place finish in the college championship section. He boasted an explosive throw of 209 feet, one inch in what was the second-best throw of his college career. He also outdistanced Navy’s Kyle Obrock for the second consecutive week (185’11").
Schwabe highlighted Saturdays’ charge for Army, crossing the finish line as the top college athlete in the Olympic Development Mile. Schwabe raced to a clip of 4 minutes, 2.34 seconds, qualifying provisionally for the NCAA Championships and recording his fastest time of the 2002 season. He finished sixth overall in the quick heat, bowing to five premier milers in a superior field. Gareth Turnbull (St. Malachy’s Old Boys Track Club) broke the tape in 3:57.61. International star Leonard Mucheru of Elite Sports Management finished second with a time of 4:00.97. Schwabe was nipped for fifth at the finish line by former Ohio State All-American and U.S. Olympian Robert Gary (Adidas, 4:02.01).
In the final event of the afternoon, Jon Dreher, Eric Motzenbecker, Tony Corona and Dan Finan assembled a solid race in the 4x800-meter relay, finishing 10th in section two in 7:38.29.
The Army track and field teams continued their assault at the 2002 Penn Relays, earning three top ten finishes during day two of the three-day carnival. Sophomore Travis Pendleton sparked Army from the field with a fifth-place finish in the college section of the discus.
Pendleton threw 172’4" Saturday, finishing ten feet back of the winner. Pendleton set the Academy record in the discus last week in a dominating victory over Navy (178’2.5"). While Pendleton lead the Black Knights’ charge, Weaver tagged a sixth-place finish in the Eastern long jump. He had a leap of 22’10.5" to secure his position in the standings. Sophomore Rod Manzo also finished in single digits, clearing 6’6" in the high jump en route to ninth in the Eastern competition.
It was well after 11:30 p.m. when senior Will Wyche crossed the line in the 10,000-meter run, officially ending the first day of action April 25. Wyche finished 13th overall in the stacked field, backed by a career-best clip of 30:14. While Wyche capped Army’s day with an exciting finish in the weekend’s longest event, several other Army performers were feeding off the atmosphere at storied Franklin Field with season-best marks and top 10 finishes.
Fellow senior distance runner Clint Tisserand earned an 11th-place finish in the steeplechase earlier in the evening, conquering the 3,000-meter race in 8:57.55. It was Tisserand’s fastest performance of the year and the second fastest finish in his college career. Tisserand finished ninth at Penn Relays in the steeplechase last season, however, his performance on this evening clearly outshined his pace of 9:07.50 in 2001.
The opening day’s annual distance carnival always makes for a thrilling atmosphere at America’s oldest continuing track and field festival; however, it was in the field that the Black Knights produced their brightest star. Sophomore Sara Fields has been on a rampage all season, obliterating personal records while repeatedly rewriting the Army record books. Fields maintained her strong surge to the top of the college rankings with a phenomenal double in the discus and shot put. While Fields failed to set an Academy record for the first time in three weeks, she did finish sixth overall in the discus with a throw of 145’5". Later in the day, Fields threw 42’2.75" in the shot put en route to a ninth-place finish out of nearly 40 competitors. Her marks are even more impressive considering the steady downpour of rain that soaked the athletes throughout the grueling competition.
