Three-peat; CMS sweeps SCIAC Championships to stay atop conference
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – For the third year in a row, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps track & field teams swept the team titles at the SCIAC Championships. Both teams led after the first day of the Championships and they stayed on top throughout Day 2, although on the men's side, the scoring was tight. The Stags totaled 204 points followed by second place Occidental with 179, while the Athenas finished in first with 233 points and Occidental came in second and had 124 in the meet held at Occidental's Bill Henry Track on April 29-30.
All told on the second day of competition, CMS tallied 10 first-place finishes, three for the Stags (1,500 meters, high jump and triple jump) and seven for the Athenas (100, 200, 400, 800 and 4x400 meters , hammer throw and discus).
The day began with the women's hammer throw and men's javelin and CMS did not disappoint in either event. Sophomore Emily Bassett (CMC) won the hammer (55.58m, 182-04) and set the CMS record with the third-best mark in Division III this season. Junior Vaiva Palunas (SCR) finished second (50.65m, 166-02) while junior Nicole Laliberte (CMC) came away in third (48.80m, 160-01) for the Athena sweep. In the men's javelin, senior Adam Hilborn (CMC) surpassed his previous best mark by a large margin to finish in second place (55.73, 182-10).
Junior Cam Van (CMC) won his second and third conference titles of the weekend on Saturday. He took first in the high jump (2.02m, 6-07.50) and in the triple jump near the end of the meet, came back from sixth place and won the event on his final jump (14.53m, 47-08.00). Sophomore Davis Catolico (CMC) took third (13.72m, 45-00.25). In the women's triple jump, junior Liz Lee (HMC) took second place (11.07m, 36-04.00)
Bassett and Palunas flip-flopped positions in the discus to take the top two spots. Palunas (47.28m, 155-01) threw for a meet record and finished first and Bassett (42.22m, 138-06) took second.
In the 1,500 meters, the Stags swept the podium with senior Evan Molineux (CMC) at 3:52.25 in first, junior Josh Sealand (HMC) at 3:52.41 in second and sophomore Kevin Huang (HMC) at 3:52.87 in third. Sophomore Bryn McKillop (SCR) took second in the event (4:39.64) for the Athenas. Later in the day, Molineux ran his way to a second place finish in the 800 meters (1:53.26). Freshman Sabrine Griffith (CMC) in the 100 meter hurdles (14.86) also came away with an All-SCIAC second place performance for the Athenas.
The first conference title of the day in a running event for the Athenas was from sophomore Aiyanna Cameron-Lewis (CMC) in the 400 meters who blew by the field in a time of 55:50, the third-fastest time in Division III. The next closest competitor came in at 57:53.
In the 100 meters on the men's side, freshman Corbin Bethurem (CMC) took third (10.95). Athena sophomore standout Tyra Abraham (SCR) followed in the 100 with a new CMS, SCIAC and meet record in the 100 (11.87).
A 31-year-old meet record fell in the women's 800 as junior Carmen Mejia (SCR) captured the third individual title of Day 2 for the Athenas. Her time of 2:12.85 was nearly a second faster than the meet record (2:13.77) set back in 1985. Athena Becca Stewart (SCR) followed in the 400 meter hurdle time of 64.80 for a third place finish.
Abraham (24.94) and Cameron-Lewis (25.09) went 1-2 in the 200 meters for the Athenas to continue their dominant day. From sprints to distance, senior Zorg Loustalet (HMC) came away second (14:42.75) in a 5,000 meters race that saw the meet record broken by the top two runners, followed Sealand (14:44.17). For the Athenas in the 5,000, senior Bridget Blum (CMC) took the title in her last conference meet (17:34.68), nearly 10 seconds ahead of the next closest competitor, while McKillop came away in third (17:53.61).
In the last running event of the night, the Stags (Betherum, Eric Myers, Matthew Guillory and Molineux) took third (3:20.07) in the 4x400 relay and the Athenas (Stewart, Abraham, Mejia and Cameron-Lewis) set a meet record and finished in first (3:50.53). The Athenas' 4x400 time ranks seventh in Division III this year.
Next on the schedule is the Claremont Classic (May 5-6), Occidental Invite (May 7) and Redlands Final Qualifier (May 18-19) before the NCAA Division III Championships (May 26-28) in Waverly, Iowa.
Final Results
Photos
By Chris Watts
Director of Athletics Communication
Claremont McKenna College
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