Complete Results
Canton, NY – The Williams men's track and field team opened day one of the Division III NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with performances by Conor Dunham '18 in the 400m hurdles and Bijan Mazaheri '16 in the 10000m. The Ephs are proud of the efforts both of their athletes gave on such a grand stage and are primed for the rest of this championship weekend.
Dunham was the first one to compete for the Ephs. He entered the 400m hurdles preliminaries seeded 19th out of 20th athletes and was the highest seeded freshman in a field that contained 12 seniors. Given that this was Dunham's first time racing at the Division III national level, he no doubt had first-year jitters. The jitters were not helped by the extremely tough headwind on the back stretch of the race, but Dunham ran an incredibly tough race to make his nationals debut. He finished in 55.33 seconds and was 19th overall, concluding a fantastic first year of collegiate athletics. The Ephs will certainly be glad to have Dunham around for three more years as he will continue to grow and gain experience.
Mazaheri was the next and final Eph competing today, entering the 10000m as the fastest seeded runner. He went out towards the back of the field of 20 runners and as the runners shuffled around early on, he stayed right in the middle of the field. The first third of the race Mazaheri was able to stay on the inside of the track while the runners in front jockeyed for early positioning. He looked smooth and confident as the race approached the halfway point, at which point the top 8-10 runners broke off from the rest of the field and started to move away. Mazaheri sat right there with the group, slowly moving up for the next few laps until he found himself sitting in the top 4 with 6 laps to go.
The next lap he definitively moved into 3rd place, and the following lap he was in what was a three-man race to the finish. He worked to keep the two runners in front of him close until taking the lead at the 29 minute mark. When he hit the bell lap at 29:39, he made a huge push to try and gap the only runner left challenging him for the win. Coming around the final turn, Ian LaMere '17 from Wisconsin-Platteville made one last charge to close in on Mazaheri, and just managed to edge Mazaheri out for the win. LaMere won the race in 30:45.151, and Mazaheri was 2nd in 30:45.158. Both LaMere and Mazaheri are slated to compete in the 5000m on Saturday, and their rematch is one to look forward to.
Day two of the NCAA Championships will feature Steve Yannacone '17, who will be competing the 800m.
