LEWISTON, Maine - The University of Maine at Farmington men's track and field team raced to a seventh-place finish on Saturday at the Maine State Championship hosted by Bates College. As a team, the Beavers amassed 18 total points at the event.
The host Bobcats earned the team title, finishing with 208 points. Bowdoin College followed closely behind in second with 187.5 points.
Top Beaver Performances:
Senior Nate Trussell (Berwick, Maine) led the way with a standout performance in the 60-meter hurdles. Trussell earned second place, finishing just one hundredth of a second shy of first after crossing the line in 8.31 seconds in the finals. He earned eight points for the team with the performance. Trussell posted a time of 8.40 seconds in the preliminary round to enter the finals ranked second. His 8.31-second finish currently ranks 38th overall in the nation.
Junior thrower Alex Crews (Winslow, Maine) turned in a strong showing in the shot put. Crews placed fourth overall, earning five points for the Beavers. His best throw measured 14.04 meters.
In the weight throw, first-year Noel Matista (Danbury, Conn.) placed 10th, with Crews finishing just behind him in 11th. Matista's top mark was 12.16 meters, while Crews recorded a best throw of 11.83 meters.
First-year Lucas Witkowski (Cromwell, Conn.) competed well in a loaded 200-meter field, finishing in 24.05 seconds — just 0.75 seconds out of a scoring position in the top eight. He also ran well in the 400 meters, placing 10th with a time of 52.90 seconds.
Junior Andrew LaFlamme (Nashua, N.H.) earned eighth place in the 1,000 meters, scoring one point in a highly competitive field. LaFlamme finished in 2:40.99, while the winning time in the event was 2:37.33.
Sophomore distance runner Sam Perkins (Jay, Maine) placed 10th overall in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:46.16.
Farmington's 4x400-meter relay team — Logan Burns (Islesboro, Maine), Hans Bakke (York, Maine), Joe Burgess (Gray, Maine), and Jake Lepper (Blue Hill, Maine) — scored four points with a fifth-place finish. The quartet posted a time of 3:58.93.
Burns also added a pair of 11th-place finishes in his individual events, the long jump and triple jump. His best mark in the long jump measured 6.00 meters, while his top attempt in the triple jump reached 11.51 meters.
UP NEXT
The Beavers will return to action next weekend with a pair of events on Friday and Saturday. The squad will split competition, with some athletes heading to Boston University for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational and others traveling to Bowdoin to compete in the Lynn Ruddy Invitational.
