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Four First Places for American Men's Track at the Patriot League Meet
Malpigli Wins 5,000 Meters, 4x800 Captures Title, O'Brien Wins Mile Showdown, Duffy Claims 1,000

February 17, 2002 | Meet Results

WEST POINT, N.Y. —

Day One

The first day of the Patriot League Indoor Track Championships proved to be highly successful for the American University men's track program. The Eagles entered two finals on the day and captured first place in both events.

In the 5,000-meter run, American sophomore Frank Malpigli won the title, edging out Bucknell's Greg Costello with a time of 14:40.89. Malpigli was patient during the race, waiting out the jostling position by the front pack. He sat in fourth place for most of the race behind Costello, Army's Will Wyche and Holy Cross' Sean McCarthy. Malpigli made his move with about two laps to go and never relinqushed the lead. "I knew it was my day four laps into the race," Malpigli said. "I just let the other guys battle it out up front and made my move at the end." Malpigli's time places him second all-time at American. Teammate Patrick MacAdie finished 11th in 15:20.49.

The men's 4x800 team of Carlos Hunt, Jovens Colas, Sean Duffy and Sean O'Brien won the event in a school record 7:37.91. Bucknell jumped out to an early lead after the first leg. American closed the gap starting with the second leg. Duffy caught the leader and handed off in the lead to O'Brien and he was able to cruise to a six second victory over Army.

Earlier in the day, John Campbell competed in the 200-meter dash. He ran a season best 23.39 to finish in 12th, just missing qualifiying for finals.

Day Two

The final day of Patriot League Indoor Track competition got off to another great start for American University. In the first event, American junior Sean O'Brien won the mile in a dual with fellow outdoor All-American Clay Schwabe of Army. The race was lead by a pacesetter from Army for the first half mile, then Schwabe took the lead. Schwabe and O'Brien pulled away from the rest of the field during the next four laps. With 150 meters to go in the race, O'Brien pulled even with Schwabe and then pulled away and won the race by two seconds.

"That's track," O'Brien said. "I knew he [Schwabe] was looking for a time and I just wanted to win, so I sat on him." He set a new Patriot League meet record by running 4:03.38, shattering the mark of 4:06.03 set by Mike Bernstein of Army in 1995.

In the 1,000-meters, American claimed yet another individual title as freshman Sean Duffy won the event in a time of 2:27.09. Bucknell's P.J. Ward took an early lead in the race. With one and a half laps to go, the pack started to close on Ward. Duffy made his move with a lap to go and took the lead on the backstretch. He never looked back and was able to hold off a late charge by a Colgate athlete to win the race. Duffy's time establishes a new American school record in the 1,000-meters. Teammate Jovens Colas was seventh in 2:30.53, just missing the scoring positions.

"I just wanted to sit and relax through the first 800 and make sure I had something left for the last 200," Duffy remarked after the race. "I got around him [Ward] with 200 to go and I fortunately had enough left."

Another exciting race was the 3,000-meters. American sophomore Matt Seymour placed second in the race with a time of 8:24.52. Bucknell's Greg Costello took the lead from the gun and paced the field through the first eleven laps. With four laps to go, Costello made a move that broke the rest of the field, but Seymour went with him. Seymour passed Costello with three and a half laps left to take the lead and held it until the last turn. He was unable to hold of a furious Costello charge and was edged at the line by only .12 seconds.

The last event of the meet was the 4x400-meter relay. The team of Ed Topolewski, John Campbell, Jovens Colas and Andy Ellerhorst placed fifth in a time of 3:24.78. This time established a new American University school record. Ellerhorst also had run the 500-meters earlier in the day. He finished the race in second, but was later disqualified by the meet officials.

American finished in seventh place with 50 points. Army claimed the team title. The men return to action next weekend at the Virginia Tech Last Chance Meet.