Irish post strong showing at Windsor Team Challenge
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Assistant Sports Editor
The Irish men's track team traveled to Canada this weekend to take part in the Windsor Team Challenge at the University of Windsor. The limited group of athletes who made the trip posted impressive performances in preparation for the Big East Indoor Championships this weekend at Syracuse.
Freshman Godwin Mbagwu led the way for the Irish, taking first in both the long jump and triple jump. Mbagwu's leap of 22 feet, 4 1/2 inches in the long-jump was his second-best jump of the season, as was his triple jump of 48-3 1/2.
Field events coach Scott Winsor was impressed with Mbagwu's performance as the team heads into the Big East.
"He's doing a fine job. He's a pretty good competitor," Winsor said. "I think the competition this weekend at the Big East is going to be a little bit better than what we saw up there."
Sophomore Tom Gilbert, the team's top long jumper all season, struggled with his approach and took sixth. Gilbert was also competing in the 60-meter dash, which was going on at the same time as the long jump.
"It was right in the middle of the 60's and he just really got fatigued," Winsor said. "I'm not too concerned about him having a bad meet in the long jump."
Nick Setta took another gold medal for the Irish, placing first in the 600-meter run. Setta led the race from start to finish, winning in a time of 1:22.74.
"He ran really well," said sprints coach John Millar. "He took the race right from the start, controlled the race the whole way."
The final Irish top-finisher was Brian Thornburg in the 35-pound weight throw. Thornburg's throw of 50-6 3/4 won the meet, followed by teammates John Scolaro and Derek Dyer, who took second and third, respectively.
Thornburg has thrown further this season, and Winsor expects his top thrower to improve in Syracuse.
"He's trying to throw too much on adrenaline, and he's kind of losing his focus a little bit on execution," Winsor said.
In the shot-put, Dyer took second with a throw of 14.91 meters. Winsor expects more in the shot as well.
"We're still struggling in that event," he said.
The Irish placed well in the two sprint events. In the 300 meters, freshman James Bracken took third place in a time of 35.40 seconds. Luis Vega Penso and Christian Myers of York University, who took first and second in the event, are ranked nationally in Canada.
"Bracken, out of all of them, ran probably the best, and felt the most comfortable running it," Millar said. "I was pleased with his performance there."
Terry Wray took fifth in the event for the Irish in 35.64 seconds while William "Red" Croker took seventh, running 36.11.
"I thought they ran pretty well," Millar said. "Not only was it their first time on a 200-meter track, but 300-meters is a race that they're not really familiar with. So it's a difficult distance to really know how to run, because it's a little too far to run a 200, yet you have to run it faster than what you'd run a 400 in."
In the 60-meter dash, senior Travis Davey finished third in 6.98 seconds, less than three hundredths of a second behind winner Victor Richards of Western Ontario. Gilbert took fifth, running 7.10 seconds.
"It was a competitive race," said Millar. "Travis, I think, led for the first part of it. They competed very well."
The only distance runner on the trip, Sean McManus, just missed qualifying for the Big East meet in the 3,000 meters. McManus' time of 8:36.65 was less than one second slower than the qualifying standard.
In the pole vault, sophomore Nathan Cahill took third place with a jump of 15 feet. Winsor expects more from that event as well.
"He's still struggling a little bit, he's not performing up to his capability," Winsor said. "Hopefully he can break through that this weekend."
The team leaves Thursday night for the meet in Syracuse, which runs Friday through Sunday.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 12, 2001
