Untermann, Bowman Make History At NEWMAC Track And Field Championships

RESULTS

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- First-year Alexa Untermann (Honolulu, Hawaii) won the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship in the high jump at Mount Holyoke on Saturday, helping the Babson College women's track and field teams post their best finish ever at the conference championships. The women finished sixth overall with a team score of 27 points, while the men took sixth in their half of the meet with a team score of 14 points.

Untermann's high jump victory came when she cleared five feet and one inch in the fewest number of attempts, giving her the tie-break advantage over two other competitors who cleared the same height. It was just the second jump in Babson history over five feet, trailing only Katie Collins' school record of 5 feet, 4 1/2 inches back in 2002. As a result, Untermann became the first conference champion in the history of the Babson women's track and field program. She is only the Beavers' third All-NEWMAC selection and the first to garner First Team honors.

Also performing well for the women was junior captain Lauren Blackburn (York, Maine), who placed fifth in the 100 meter hurdles and third in the 400 hurdles, just missing All-Conference honors by 0.40 seconds in the latter. First-year Nicki Wurdeman (Rowley, Mass.) placed seventh in both the shot put and discus events, while sophomore Larina Kleynerman (Sudbury, Mass.) finished eight in the 200 meter dash and 11th in the 100. First-year Michelle Black (San Diego, Calif.) took seventh in the 5000 meter run, first-year Colleen Carr (Brewer, Maine) came in ninth in the long jump, and junior captain Katie Trant (Westfield, Mass.) placed 10th in the high jump. Senior captain Alison Sullivan (Tyngsboro, Mass.) also performed well in her final conference meet, taking eight and a half seconds off her season-best time to finish 12th in the 1500 meter run.

The men's side of the meet featured a number of highlights for Babson, including three school records, an All-Conference honoree, a regional qualifier, and the team's first ECAC qualification of the season. Leading the Beavers was once again first-year Justin Bowman (Plymouth, Mass.), who finished second overall and broke his own school record with a time of 1:56.09 in the 800 meter run. As a result, he became just the third person in program history to earn All-Conference honors, as he was selected to the Second Team. It was the fourth All-League selection overall for the men's program and the first since 2006.

Senior captain Kevin Butera (Walpole, Mass.) also had a monster day for the Beavers, highlighted by a sixth-place peformance in the triple jump in which he broke his own school record and qualified for the NCAA New England Championshpis with a leap of 42 feet, 7 1/2 inches. Butera also joined first-year Varun Bhandari (Andover, Mass.), first-year Daniel Girdusky (Maspeth, N.Y.), and junior Charlie Brown (Bronx, N.Y.) on Babson's 4x100 meter relay team, which placed sixth, set a new program record, and qualified for the ECAC New England Championships with a time of 44.29 seconds.

Other strong showings for the men included a ninth-place effort by Brown and a personal record by Girdusky in the 110 meter hurdles, a personal best by sophomore Jared Bartlett (Penfield, N.Y.) in the 1500 meter run, and 10th-place performances by Bhandari in the 100 and senior captain Greg Keshian (North Andover, Mass.) in the 5000. Butera added an 11th-place finish in the long jump, sophomore Chris Freney (Vernon, Conn.) took 11th in the discus, and first-year Mike Smith (Brockton, Mass.) came in 11th in the 5000.