CMC75 Moments: 2019 Men's Track and Field Beats No. 2 Pomona-Pitzer for SCIAC Title
As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you were a part of this great moment and would like to add to the memories, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moment, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.
Great Moments from 75 Years of Athletics
2019 Men's Track and Field: Stags Take SCIAC After Being Picked Fourth
Expectations for the CMS Men's Track and Field program weren't as high as normal heading into the 2019 season. The Stags had 24 SCIAC titles in the 27 years between 1992-2018, but were coming off a fourth-place finish in the SCIAC the year before, and were picked in that same spot in preseason.
A regular season dual loss to Pomona-Pitzer, which entered SCIACs ranked No. 2 in the nation, maybe tempered expectations as well. But the Stags, while hosting the championship on their home track, defied the odds, dominating the throws and winning by a comfortable 40-point margin. Maxwell Knowles, Jordan Venglass and Connor Schulz went 1-2-3 in the javelin to lead the throws dominance (with Ross Rainaldi also scoring in sixth), while Matthew Sill and Reese Peterson went 1-2 in the discus and hammer. After two silvers, Peterson earned his own SCIAC title in the shot put with a PR to upset the champion from Redlands.
On the track, Miles Christensen had a dramatic comeback win on the final lap in the 5000. Alex McDonald added an individual title in the 400 hurdles in a 53.10 time that ranked second in CMS history and qualified him for nationals, and then helped the 4x400 relay to another win with Daniel Addison, Keizo Morgan and Jamie Cockburn. In the sprints, Corbin Bethurem and Cockburn were 3-4 in the 200, Bethurem (fourth) and Matthew Guillory (sixth) scored in the 100, and Cockburn added another fourth-place in the 400. Daniel Sealand, Morgan and Max Denning were 5-6-7 in the 800, Wilson Ives and Ben Iten were 3-4 in the 1500, Stevie Steinberg (sixth) and Kyril Van Schendel (seventh) scored in the 5000 with Christensen, Thomas Fleming was fifth in the 10000.
Evan Hassman was second in the steeplechase, qualifying for nationals and earning All-America honors, with Will Kimball (fourth), Adam Wilkinson (seventh) and Arjun Natarajan (eighth) all scoring as well. Walker Quinn was the SCIAC Champion the pole vault, with Garegin Soghomonyan third and Alex Cha seventh, Eric Myers was second in the long jump and sixth in the high jump, while Tse Yang Lim was third in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump. CMS won easily despite not scoring in the 4x100 relay due to a dropped baton, an event in which the Stags had set a new program record and qualified for nationals just a few weeks prior.
Alex McDonald:
Freshman year, I'm getting ready for my first SCIAC championship race. I'm in the 400 hurdles and seeded first and feeling great. Feeling so great that I have the fastest start of my life up until the first hurdle... where I smack it with my shin and fall down. From there, I do a quick little ninja roll and get back up and keep going. I finished fifth but I at least have my pride knowing that I didn't give up and continued to be able to score some points for my team in a fiasco of an event.
The next year I line up in the SCIAC championship race again for the 400 hurdles, once again seeded first. Up until this point in the year I hadn't hit a new PR and was concerned about why that was. This time I just wanted to keep calm through this race and NOT repeat the mistake of going too fast like last year. The gun goes off, I smoothly run through the hurdles, and have the best time of my life with a 53.10 seconds which is the 2nd fastest time in CMS history. The cheers at the end felt amazing and when I saw my time I felt like I was invincible.
Matthew Sill:
I remember going into the championship thinking that we were not going to win. I had high expectations for myself and the others on the throws team, but outside of the throwers, I had no clue how we stacked up against the competition. I remember thinking that going to first place from an expected fourth place finish would be very, very difficult.
The first day went well for the throwers. Reese and I took 1 and 2 in the hammer. Max, Connor, Jordan, and Ross helped CMS sweep the javelin podium. The throws team alone took home 45 points that day, but we had no clue if the rest of the team performed in-line with expectations. We were worried when we found out that the 4x100 team had a DQ - we all thought that race would make or break our chances.
The night of the first day, I came down with some swelling in my achilles tendon. I couldn't walk without limping. I didn't even know if I was going to be able to compete the next day. I decided to start my day extra early. I spent four hours that morning in the ATF doing as much physical therapy as I could. By the time I had to warm up for discus, I could finally walk with only a slight limp. I was healthy enough to compete. As it turned out, Reese and I took first and second place again, with both of us breaking our personal records.
Reese went on to take first place in shot put, with a PR that had the entire CMS bench standing and cheering. By the end of the meet, the men's throws team had scored 75 points. We found out that CMS blew the competition out of the water, winning the championship by 40 points. The women's team won, too. Someone handed the trophy to me, and we all took a victory lap around the track.
2019 Men's Track and Field Roster
Head Coach: Glenn Stewart
Assistant Coaches: John Goldhammer, Emily Ramey-Root, Bob Ramsey, Collin Christensen, Caleb McCurry, Megumi Abe
Colin Adams (Sr., Distance, HMC)
Daniel Addison (So., Sprints, CMC)
Jacob Adolphe (So., Springs, CMC)
Lincoln Bernard (So., Pole Vault, CMC)
Corbin Bethurem (Sr., Sprints, CMC)
Eamon Brady (So., Jumps, CMC)
Alex Cha (Jr., Pole Vault, CMC)
Miles Christensen (Fr., Distance, HMC)
Jamie Cockburn (Fr., Sprints, CMC)
Thomas D'Anieri (Jr., Distance, CMC)
Max Denning (Jr., Distance, CMC)
Alissandro Fernandez (Jr., Sprints, CMC)
Cameron Finley (Fr., Sprints, CMC)
Thomas Fleming (Fr., Distance, HMC)
Jake Gill (Fr., Distance, HMC)
Matthew Guillory (Sr., Sprints, HMC)
Charles Harris (Sr., Distance, CMC)
Evan Hassman (So., Distance, HMC)
Carter Henderson (So., Sprints, CMC)
Gage Hornung (So., Distance, CMC)
Benjamin Iten (Sr., Distance, HMC)
Wilson Ives (Jr., Distance, HMC)
Garrick Jensen (Fr., Distance, HMC)
Will Kimball (So., Distance, CMC)
Maxwell Knowles (Jr., Throws, CMC)
Kaito Komoriya (Fr., Distance, CMC)
Christopher LaRovere (Fr., Sprints, CMC)
Matt Leder (Fr., Sprints, CMC)
Tse Yang Lim (Jr., Jumps, HMC)
Andrew Maltz (So., Throws, CMC)
Alex McDonald (So., Hurdles, CMC)
Dylan McGarvey (So., Hurdles, CMC)
Keizo Morgan (Fr., Sprints, HMC)
Bennett Mountain (So., Distance, HMC)
Eric Myers (Sr., Jumps, CMC)
Arjun Natarajan (So., Distance, CMC)
Bradley Newton (Jr., Distance, CMC)
Alexander Novitsky (Jr., Hurdles, CMC)
Luke Ostrander (So., Distance, CMC)
Nohl Patterson (Fr., Sprints, CMC)
Reese Peterson (Jr., Throws, HMC)
Matt Psaltakis (Sr., Distance, CMC)
Walker Quinn (Jr., Pole Vault, CMC)
Ross Rainaldi (So., Multi, CMC)
Connor Schulz (So., Javelin, CMC)
Adam Schulze (Sr., Distance, HMC)
Daniel Sealand (So., Distance, HMC)
Matthew Sill (So., Throws, CMC)
Garegin Soghomonyan (Fr., Pole Vault, CMC)
Henry Sojico (So., Sprints, HMC)
Finn Southerland (Sr., Hurdles, HMC)
Stevie Steinberg (So., Distance, HMC)
Kyril Van Schendel (Fr., Distance, CMC)
Jordan Venglass (So., Throws, CMC)
Adam Wilkinson (Fr., Distance, CMC)