BU Valentine: Men's highlights

Another magical afternoon and evening on the magic carpet at Boston University:

--Junior David Marthy set a school record in the 800-meter run, eclipsing Mike Bamberger’s outstanding standard from 2005. David ran an IC4A qualifying mark of 1:52.18, and bettered Bambi’s longstanding mark of 1:52.96. Bambi was one of the most prolific middle distance runners in school history, and he admitted to some sadness at seeing his most cherished record fall by the wayside. However, I texted him back saying that David did the record proud, running hard and tough and strong, often in lane 2 and lane 3 as is the physical and bruising nature of indoor racing. He raced hard and he raced tough; just as Bambi would have done and would have wanted it done.

--Speaking of prolific record setters, Brian DeMarco will go down in history as one of the greatest sprinters in Marist lore. One of his marks fell on Saturday as senior Jesse Aprile sprinted to a 22.71 in the 200-meter dash, bettering Brian’s 2007 mark of 22.75. Jesse still has much to accomplish in his final months here, but he has already stamped himself in program history as the best short sprinter. He owns school records in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash indoors, and the 100, 200 and 4x100 outdoors.

--In the last event of the evening, junior Mark Valentino made it all worth the wait by becoming the 21st distance runner in school history to eclipse the 15-minute barrier in the 5,000-meter run. Mark utilized a heart-stopping effort and gutsy kick over the final 1,000 meters to join the sub-15:00 club with his time of 14:57.70. He set the table two weeks ago at the Terrier meet with his time of 15:08.27. Tonight, he closed the deal and broke 15:00. Nicely done.

--There were several other strong performances and personal-best times – the entire roster in the 200 dash ran extremely well – but the stuff for the record books obviously leaves lasting memories.

As we continue to scrape ice off our windshields and wonder when all this snow is going to melt so we can train properly again, we remain extremely proud of the record-setting season our athletes have fashioned in the face of the many challenges they must deal with on a daily basis. Complete results and splits to follow …