BOSTON (2/9/08)—The Colgate University men’s track and field team registered a monumental day at the annual St. Valentine Invitational at Boston University. The Raiders turned in four IC4A qualifying performances, broke a 40 year-old school record, and posted 16 personal records in all at the meet.

 

“It’s the best meet I’ve been to at Colgate since I’ve been here,” head coach Art McKinnon said. “We showed up and ran well from the first to the last event.”

 

Sophomore Lyle Tolli (Lockport, N.Y.) started things off with a bang for the Raiders in the mile. Running in the top heat, Tolli covered the eight laps in 4:06 to finish third and easily qualify for the IC4A Championship. His effort ranks second all-time at Colgate and is the fastest since All-American Ray Appenheimer ran 4:04.25 in 1993. Tolli currently ranks first in the Patriot League in the mile and has qualified for the IC4A’s in both the mile and the 1,000.

 

Senior Thomas Dilworth (Bronx, N.Y.) also had a big afternoon, qualifying for the IC4A Championship in the 400-meter dash with a personal-best time of 48.90. Dilworth finished 13th of 165 runners to move up three spots to third on the records list. It is the fastest quarter mile by a Colgate runner since 2002. He currently ranks second in the Patriot League in the 400 and has qualified for the IC4A’s in both the 400 and 500-meter dashes.

 

Dilworth also was a member of the record-setting 4x400-meter relay team. The quarter of junior Mike Walden (Oak Park, Ill.), sophomore Charles Green (Pomona, N.Y.), senior Andy Holway (Tallahassee, Fla.), and Dilworth covered the four legs in 3:17.09 to just beat the 40-year-old record of 3:17.3 set in 1968. The time also qualifies the Raiders for the IC4A Championship and is the second fastest time in the Patriot League this season.

 

“Coach [Sanders] has done a great job of getting those guys ready this season,” McKinnon said.

 

Holway added another individual IC4A qualifying performance for Colgate in the 500-meter dash. He just beat his previous personal best, hitting the tape in 1:04.18 to finish fifth of 66 competitors. That is the fastest time by a Colgate runner this season and ranks second in the Patriot League. He is just over a quarter of a second off of the 40-year old school record of 1:03.8.

 

Senior Terrence Dilworth (Bronx, N.Y.) just missed qualifying for the IC4A Championship in the 200-meter dash with a personal-best time of 22.36. That beats his previous best time of the season by over a second and ranks sixth on the records board at Colgate.

 

Walden turned in a personal-best time of 50.25 in the 400 dash and just missed earning a spot on the records list. Green also shaved off valuable tenths of seconds from his quarter mile time as he hit the tape in 50.65. Hobbs crossed the line in 52.51 to round out the Raiders runners in the 400-meter dash.

 

Freshman Dan Gleason (Norwalk, Conn.) dropped 11 seconds from his pervious personal best mile time with an effort of 4:20.96. Senior Sean Baumann (Armonk, N.Y.) climbed into the Colgate records book at the No. 6 spot in the 800 with a personal record time of 1:55.94. Sophomore Phil Natoli (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and Smith both ran strong in the half mile race, turning in times of 1:58.57 and 1:59.05, respectively.

 

Rookie Ed Boulat (Larchmont, N.Y.) led the Raider contingent in the 1,000 with a time of 2:34.42, while senior Jeff Tufts (Wells, Maine) was not far behind in 2:37.54. Freshman Ed Sheridan (Phillipsburg, N.J.) ran the 5,000 for the first time in his collegiate career and clocked in at 15:15.95, missing a spot a on the top-10 list by just two seconds.

 

In the field events, rookie Tom Cuppernull (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) continued his improvement in the triple jump with a leap of 13.67 meters. He remains ninth on the all-time list but came inches closer to taking over the No. 8 spot. Senior Wil Redmond (El Paso, Texas) established a new personal best for the fourth time this season with a toss of 13.60 meters.

 

The Raiders will continue to prepare for the Patriot League Championship over the next two weeks. The meet will be held at Bucknell University

 

“We’re looking forward to two weeks from now,” McKinnon said. “It’s an exciting time for Colgate track and field.”