Eagles Win 21st Men's Title; MIT Women Break Through With First

By David Woods for DyeStat

Dominick Gramarosso PHOTOS

His name is Sam Blaskowski. More like Blast-kowski.

He blasted to a second straight sprint double, leading Wisconsin-La Crosse’s men to a record score of 81 points Saturday in the NCAA Division 3 Indoor Track and Field Championships at Rochester, N.Y.

The Eagles scored in 12 of 17 events and broke the record of 78 points, also by La Crosse, from 2006. They have won 14 of the past 21 titles and a record 21 overall. Coach Josh Buchholtz has won seven indoor titles and four outdoor.

Wisconsin-Oshkosh was second with 39 points and Rowan (N.J). third with 32.

Blaskowski last year became D3’s first sub-10-second sprinter for 100 meters (9.99 with +5.5 mps wind),  and he made the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic Trials. He is following in the spikeprints of La Crosse’s Andrew Rock, who won a silver medal in the 400 at the 2005 World Championships and relay golds at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 worlds.

At indoor nationals, Blaskowski won a third straight 60-meter title in a meet record of 6.62, or .02 off his D3 record. Oshkosh’s Davian Williams was second in 6.64 and Landen Liu of Bethel (Minn.) third in 6.69.

They are the three fastest men in D3 history with times of 6.60, 6.63, 6.67, respectively.

In the 200, Blaskowski repeated in 21.26.

Also repeating for La Crosse was Cael Schoemann with a time of 1:50.08 in the 800. The Eagles’ fourth victory was by Grant Matthai, who clocked 14:02.76 in the 5,000.

Rowan was third in the standings because of the 60 hurdles, in which it scored 27 points from a 1-2-4-5 finish. Jason Agyemang beat D3 record-holder Jamir Brown, 7.76 to 7.80. (Brown, a freshman, clocked 7.72 at Staten Island, N.Y., on Dec. 6.)

Joshua Rivers of Oshkosh broke the meet record in the long jump with a distance of  25-7.50 (7.81m). He holds the D3 record of 26-8.25 (8.13m).

North Central’s Braden Nicholson made a bold move midway through the 3,000 and went on to win in 8:07.39.

St. Lawrence’s Nicholas Lyndaker drove at the finish line to win the mile over Brockport State’s Jonathan Zavala, 4:06.45 to 4:06.48.

Boykins Leads MIT Women To First Team Crown

Led by thrower Alexis Boykin’s double victory, the MIT women scored 49 points to win their first D3 indoor championship.

Washington University was second with 45.5 and La Crosse third with 37.

Boykin had distances of 68-7.25 (20.91m) in the weight and 50-2.75 (15.31m) in the shot put. She increased her career total to seven D3 titles.

La Crosse’s Lauren Jarrett, who lowered the D3 60-meter record three times this season, tied it by clocking 7.29 in trials and repeated as champion in 7.31. She took the 200 in 23.94, just .04 off the D3 record.

A third double winner was Faith Duncan of Wilmington (Ohio). Her times were 16:31.42 in the 5,000 and 9:22.46 in the 3,000.

Nikki Boon of Emory became the first in D3 to exceed 4,000 points in the pentathlon, scoring 4,061. Previous record was 3,986 by Grace Alley of Loras last year.

Aryianna Garceau of UMass Boston won the 60 hurdles in 8.35, second in D3 history.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.