The Bates men's track and field team won the Maine State Classic for the third straight time on Saturday, April 22, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Alison Leonard '10)

Men's Track and Field 4/22/2023 9:29:00 PM Aaron Morse

Men's outdoor track and field wins 122nd annual Maine State Classic, sweeps all three state meets

STANDISH, Maine -- The Bates men's outdoor track and field team won the 122nd annual Maine State Classic in dominating fashion on Saturday, with a pair of Bobcats winning meet MVP awards.

The Bobcats scored 231 points as a team, easily defeating runner-up Bowdoin (113 points) for the Frank E. Lowe Trophy. The Polar Bears were followed by Thomas College (93 points), Southern Maine (75 points), Colby (72 points), host Saint Joseph's College of Maine (66.5 points), UMaine-Farmington (63.5 points), and Husson (23 points).

The Bates men also won the cross country and indoor track and field titles, making this year the second straight year the Bobcats have swept all three state meets. Bates has won three straight outdoor titles and 17 of the last 20, with the 2020 and 2021 meets canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a few exceptions, the Maine State Classic has been held every year since 1895.

On Saturday, Bates senior captain Liam Byrne (Ridgefield, Conn.) won The Frederick D. Tootell Memorial Most Valuable Field Athlete Award for the second straight year. He took home state titles in the Frank Sabasteanski Hammer Throw, (personal record 188-5 / 57.44m), the discus (153-7 / 46.81m), and the shot put (50-4 / 15.34m). Byrne also scored in the Ed Styrna Javelin with a top effort of 178-11 (54.53m), good for second place.

Meanwhile, Bates sophomore Aidan Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) made a little history, becoming the first Bobcat to win The Alan G. Hillman Memorial Most Valuable Track Athlete Award since Joel Colony '06 in 2006.

Rooney won the 800 meters in 1:56.61 and helped teammates first-year Sebenele Lukhele (Eswatini), first-year Evan Migdole (Westbrook, Conn.), and junior Jason Nahigian (Needham, Mass.) win the 4x400 relay in 3:30.61.

The Bobcats had a number of other standouts besides Byrne and Rooney on their way to victory.

Top three performances for Bates included:

Sophomore Matthew Hamilton (Sudbury, Mass.) won the Jim Wescott High Jump with a top leap of 6-2.75 (1.90m).
Sophomore Aydan Gedeon-Hope (Norton, Mass.) placed third in the 100 meters in 11.25 seconds.
Senior Derek Shen (Bellevue, Wash.) and senior captain Colby Stakun-Pickering (Wellesley, Mass.) placed 2-3 in the 200 meters, with Shen running a career-best time of 22.73 seconds.
Sophomore Truman Williams (Montclair, N.J.) took third in the C. Ray Thompson 400 Meters in 51.18 seconds.
Sophomore Calvin Capelle (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) finished third in the 800 meters in 1:57.59.
Senior Eli Boesch Dining (Concord, N.H.) took third in the Chet Jenkins 1,500 Meters in 4:03.28.
Junior Walter Joachim-DelPoio (Barrington, R.I.) finished second in the Jack McGee 110 Meter Hurdles in a personal record 16.47 seconds.
Senior captain Evan Koch (Brattleboro, Vt.) and Joachim-DelPoio finished 2-3 in the 400-meter hurdles, with Koch racing to the finish in 58.58 seconds.
Stakun-Pickering, Lukhele, Williams, and Gedeon-Hope took second in the 4x100 relay in 43.23 seconds.
Junior Jacob Goff (Scarborough, Maine) took second to Byrne in the shot put with a top effort of 48-1.25 (14.66m), and third in the hammer (159-0 / 48.47m) and discus (134-3 / 40.91m).
Junior James Guinee (Topsfield, Mass.) finished second in the discus with a top throw of 134-9 (41.07m), sandwiching a 1-2-3 effort with Byrne and Goff.