CMS Men's Track and Field Selected First in SCIAC Preseason Poll

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's track and field team earned the top spot in the SCIAC Preseason poll in a vote of the league's coaches, the conference office announced today.

CMS earned 79 points and eight first-place votes to finish well ahead of Pomona-Pitzer in second place with 72 points. Redlands was third with 65 points and the other first-place vote, with Occidental in fourth with 52 points. Whittier (42), La Verne (39), Chapman (22), Cal Lutheran (22) and Caltech (12) rounded out the preseason poll. 

Expectations are higher for CMS this season than they were a year ago, when the Stags were picked to finish fourth but ended up rolling to a comfortable win in the SCIAC Championship, winning by 40 points. CMS accomplished that feat in large part to dominating the throws, and the Stags have all of their throwers back who swept the league championships last year. 

Senior Maxwell Knowles, junior Jordan Venglass and junior Connor Schulz finished 1-2-3 in the javelin a year ago, with Knowles qualifying for the national championships with his 199-foot throw which won him the league title. Junior Matthew Sill and senior Reese Peterson were 1-2 in both the discus and the hammer throws, while Peterson took first in the shot put. 

Junior Evan Hassman came away with All-America honors a year ago in the steeplechase and he returns again this year to try to improve on his seventh-place finish. Junior Alex McDonald was a SCIAC Champion in the 400-meter hurdles, qualifying for the NCAA Championships, as did sophomore Miles Christensen in the 5000. 

Senior Walker Quinn was a SCIAC Champion in the pole vault and earned All-West Region honors, while senior Wilson Ives was All-West Region in the 1500. Sophomore Jamie Cockburn was All-West in both the 4x100 and the 4x400 relays, with McDonald, junior Daniel Addison and sophomore Keizo Morgan were also part of the All-West 4x400 relay team. 

CMS has plenty of depth as well, especially in the distance events, where the Stags finished sixth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall. Senior Thomas D'Anieri finished third at the cross country nationals and is expected to have a big impact in his final spring, while Ives, juniors Stevie Steinberg and Will Kimball, sophomores Kyril Van Schendel and Christensen, and first-years Henry Pick and Daniel Krasemann were part of the CMS postseason contingent in the fall. 

In the sprints, juniors Jacob Adolphe and Henry Sojico will join sophomores Cockburn and Christopher LaRovere as a strong returning nucleus. Morgan, Addison, Ives senior Max Denning and junior Daniel Sealand will be ones to watch in the middle distances. 

Sophomore Garegin Soghomonyan was an All-SCIAC performer in the pole vault a year ago to give CMS a potential 1-2 in that event along with Quinn.  Senior Ross Rainaldi and Schulz will be the top returning Stags in the decathlon. 

CMS opens up its outdoor schedule on Feb. 15 at the Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers Meet, before hosting the Rossi Relays on Feb. 22.