Alma Finishes Season Fourth in MIAA With Young, Speedy Contingent
ALMA, Mich. - Under second year head coach Matt Chovanec the men’s track team finished the season with a 2-4 dual meet record. The Scots had a small but strong trio of seniors to lead the team to a fourth place MIAA finish. Greg Jacobs (Traverse City), a driving force for the Maroon and Cream, finished the 2005 season by defending his 2004 javelin championship title. Joe Whitman (Davison), a distance runner, and Paul Nottoli (Constantine), a middle-distance runner rounded out the seniors.On their spring trip to Virginia, the Scots finished fifth in the Roanoke Invitational. There were many top four finishers that contributed to the Scots taking home fifth place, along with Greg Jacobs’ victories in pole vault and javelin.
On April 6 the Scots defeated Adrian by a score of 103-62 in MIAA dual meet action. Contributions came from all over the board with, Matt Lambourn (West Branch/Ogemaw Heights), Kyle Percival (Lansing/Waverly), Derek Curry (Peck), Kyle Hill (Midland) and Whitman all taking third place in their respective events. Greg Jacobs notched up a few more points by taking first in the javelin and second in the shot put.
Three days later Alma fell to Tri-State by a mere four points in a tri-meet against Tri-State and Albion. Jacobs, Whitman and Curry were the three Scots that finished in the top three in their respective events.
Although the Scots were young this year the underclassmen were able to hold their own against the competition. Percival, a transfer to Alma College from Grand Valley State, was able to finish at the top of the standings in sprints in nearly all meets. Lambourn and Curry, also sprinters, finished high in the standings to give the Scots one of the fastest sprint teams in recent memory.
The Scots finished in fourth place at the MIAA Championships to round out the season. With Jacobs’ successful defense of his conference javelin title with a mark of 184-11, other Scots stepped up as well as Percival entered the 100 meter dash finals with the top seed, being beaten down the stretch by just .07.
Greg Jacobs and Kyle Percival were both awarded All-MIAA recognition for their efforts in the championship.
Posted: Mon, May 16th, 2005 at 11:36AM
