Perseverance Counts For BU Trackmen at IC-4A Championships
March 6-7,2004. Boston University Track and Tennis Center
Running in the oldest conference meet in the US, Boston University's 4x400 relay team continued to keep plugging away, fighting for a qualifying spot in the trials and then finishing in the top five for the second year in a row. The team of Colin Rose, Lucjan Zaborowski, Matt Howard and Matt Adler refused to quit, resulting in a season ending best performance of 3:12.31 and a fifth place overall finish.
The relay team has been struggling all indoor season, first searching for replacements for Steve Deppe and Chris Brandon and then fighting off injuries, first to freshman Barry Graham (slight quad strain while running the 55 meters -he had run a 48.2 leg); then Matt Adler (serious flu infection that took him out of the main part of the season); and finally Andre Nacaxe (injured quad last Tuesday that squelched any idea of contending for the 500 meter title-he ran 1:02.27 to win the New England title and also anchored with a 47.17 relay leg).
The end result was a discouraged team running for pride and desire to do the best they could under less than ideal situations. Coming to the rescue was Colin Rose, out for two years with two major knee operations, who worked all fall and winter to try and get back into decent shape for the end of the indoor season. With Graham and Nacaxe out, Rose was called into service. Rose responded as best as he could, running two sub 50 lead off legs for the Terriers yesterday and today. The others tried their best to fulfill their roles in first making the finals yesterday (which they did with their best time of the season) and then trying to improve on their previous performance (which they also did).
Rose, out in lane six, got out slowly and settled into last place through the first 200 meters. He then was able to move ahead of the Cornell leadoff man and came through about 10 yards out of the lead. Unfortunately, Lucjan Zaborowski ran into a major traffic jam as the St. Joseph runner moved to the outside lanes, instead of getting off the track on the inside, causing Lucjan to have to swerve even further outside and then cut back into the first lane. Despite a very strong effort, Boston U was still about 6 yards out of second place (Penn State). Walk-on freshman Matt Howard, who has really developed rapidly this indoor season, continued to show an ability to run with abandon as he quickly closed up the gap on the rest of the teams and provided Matt Adler an opportunity to run with the front group. With 100 meters to go, 400 meter champ and facility record holder OJ Hogans (45.83 in the 400) put on an assume display of quickness and just pulled away from the pack of four. Ernie Terrell, Penn State's fine sprinter/400 meter runner also made a good move, but Adler was not able to close the gap on perennial nemesis, St. Joe's and the team had to be content with a fifth place overall (Lincoln University ran a 3:11.10 in the previous section).
Congratulations to this group that fought hard and succeeded in performing at their best when it counted the most. The outdoor season looks a lot brighter this evening as the guys left the Center and the feel of Spring was in the air.
Boston U results:
Men 400 Meter Dash
=========================================================================
Meet Record: M 45.86 3/7/2003 Obra Hogans, Seton
Hall
Facility: * 45.86 3/10/2003 Obra Hogans,
Seton Hall
NCAA: # 46.32
47.25 provisional
Name
Year School
Seed Prelims
=========================================================================
Heat 2 Preliminaries
3 Zaborowski, Lucjan 06 Boston
Univ. 47.90
48.41
Men 4x400 Meter Relay
=========================================================================
Meet Record: M 3:07.64 3/6/2003 Seton Hall, Seton
Hall
Q Bowens, R Speid, D Thomas, O Hogans
Facility: * 3:07.64 3/8/2003 Seton
Hall
NCAA: # 3:06.90
3:10.40 provisional
School
Seed Prelims
=========================================================================
Heat 3 Preliminaries
1 Saint Joseph's University
3:15.03 3:12.37Q
2 Boston University
3:13.33 3:13.02q
3 Fordham University
3:17.88 3:15.52
4 Rutgers University
3:17.19 3:16.48
5 University of New Haven
3:20.91 3:23.79
Men 4x400 Meter Relay
================================================================================
Meet Record: M 3:07.64 3/6/2003 Seton Hall, Seton
Hall
Q Bowens, R Speid, D Thomas, O Hogans
Facility: * 3:07.64 3/8/2003 Seton
Hall
NCAA: # 3:06.90
3:10.40 provisional
School
Prelims Finals Points
================================================================================
Section 1 Finals
1 Lincoln University
3:14.36 3:11.10 6
2 Delaware State University
3:15.39 3:14.11 3
3 Long Island University
3:14.63 3:14.16 2
4 Monmouth University
3:14.64 3:14.43 1
5 Coppin State University
3:15.00 3:15.99
Section 2 Finals
1 Seton Hall University
3:07.57 3:10.07 10
2 Penn State University
3:14.01 3:10.86 8
3 Saint Joseph's University
3:12.37 3:11.60 5
4 Boston University
3:13.02 3:12.31 4
5 Cornell University
3:13.76 3:17.09