By William Miller
photo by www.wingedfootfotos.com
The first appearance of the Big East Conference’s indoor track and field championships at the New Balance Track and Field Center at the Armory in Day 1 of the two-day competition got off to an outstanding start when Jillian Drouin, Syracuse senior, posted a winning total of 4,099 points for the five events of the pentathlon. The total erased the Armory’s all-time record of 3,924 points and the Armory’s college mark of 3,830. The total also moved the 5-foot-11-inch, 145-pound Orange athlete from
“I always start my events with no expectations other than to do my best,” Drouin said after her record performance. “Today I felt real good and just went about my business doing things that were necessary to win.” She started with gusto, posting the highest points in the first three competitions—the 60-hurdles (987 points), the high jump (928) and the shot put (691). Her next event, the long jump’s 819 points, were the second-best in the field and she scored her lowest points (674) in an event she admits is not her best, the 800 meters. “I was elated when my point total was announced, particularly with the fact that it qualified me for the NCAA’s and guaranteed me a spot in the college championships.”
Drouin comes from an athletic family. “My younger sister is a hockey player at Adrian University in Michigan, and my kid brother, a 6-feet 4-inch senior, is a high jumper and has a best height of 6-foot 9 ¾ inches.” Jillian intends to try to make the Canadian Olympic team at the trials in June. She has an outdoor best in the heptathlon of 5,890 points, and she feels 6,000 will make her country’s Olympic team...
In another stellar individual performance yesterday, Patrick Smyth (see photo), Notre Dame junior, won the 5,000 meters in 13:57.44, the second-fastest ever run in the 29-year history of the meet. The only faster time was turned in by John Trautmann of
Another barn-burning event came in the early evening yesterday when Villanova and
An interesting sidelight on the DMR was that the meet record Villanova discarded was 9:38.38 set in 1984, and the anchor leg on that 1984
team was none other than Marcus O’Sullivan, the flying Irishman, who is the present Wildcats coach. O’Sullivan was more excited last night, he admitted, about his relay’s victory than his own triumph 24 years earlier. It’s amazing how time changes things.
Talking about Villanova, one of their athletes tried an unusual feat this week. Bill Sepich (see photo), a junior out of Delran, N.J. A swimmer and a trackman both, he came up with the idea of competing in the Big East swimming championships in nearby Long Island’s Eisenhower Park, only 30 miles from the Armory, and running the 1,000 meters at the indoor track championships in the same week. This kind of thing had never happened before, to anyone’s knowledge. O’Sullivan gave his blessing to Sepich’s idea.
“I thought it was worth a shot because Bill is a real nice kid and has talent in both sports,” he said. Things didn’t quite work out as Sepich expected. In three swimming days at
photo by www.wingedfootfotos.com