Even with a key sprinter sidelined for the rest of the season, the men's track and field team refused to slow down at Yale's Geigengack Invitational. Instead, the Bears took home several top-three finishes from the unscored weekend event.
Participating schools included Ivy League rivals Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
"We were struggling," said Craig Lake, director of track and field. "Michael Pruzinsky ('07), who's a huge part of our team, just got diagnosed with a kidney infection. He'll be out for the rest of the season."
Pruzinsky was one of the Bears' top sprinters last year, finishing third in the 400-meter run at the indoor Heptagonal Championships. He also helped the 4x400-meter relay team to a second place finish.
With Pruzinsky ailing, the other runners filled the void. Jamil McClintock '08 highlighted the Bears' performances, earning Brown's only first-place finish of the day. McClintock won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.14 seconds, .04 seconds ahead of Georgetown University's Terrell Gissendanner.
"Jamil McClintock has been running really well," Lake said.
In the 1,000-meter run, Sean O'Brien '09 took second place with a time of 2:27.23, less than two seconds behind the University of Vermont's Sean Steinhagen.
The Bears also performed impressively in the 5,000-meter run, earning third place with a 14:29.60 finish by Stephen Chaloner '09. Chaloner completed the event ahead of Christian Escareno '10, Brian Schmidt '09 and Ryan Graddy '08, who placed fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
"The men's distance squad is running phenomenally well," Lake said.
Brown earned two more second-place finishes in the field events. David Howard '09 recorded a throw of 54 feet, 3 1/4-inches in the weight throw and a 51-foot 6 1/2-inch throw in the shot put to place second in both events. Bryan Powlen '10 also competed in the shot put, throwing 48-6 3/4 for fifth place.
In the pole vault, Grant Bowen '07 jumped 15 feet 3 inches to finish fourth. In the triple jump, Andrew Chapin '10 and Reginald Cole '10 took fifth place and seventh place with respective jumps of 46 feet 1 1/4 inches and 45-2 1/4.
The Bears will next head to Boston University to compete at the St. Valentine's Invitational on Feb. 9-10.
"We need to keep improving on individual performances," Lake said. "We're looking toward the Ivy League Championships."
