2014-15 Emory Men's Track & Field Athletes of the Week

Emory University junior Adam Rabushka set a new career-best time in the 400-meter hurdles and helped the 4x400-meter relay team to one of the top-times in school history at the Georgia Invitational in Athens on Saturday. Rabushka finished seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.40 seconds, the fastest mark in the UAA this season, 16th-fastest in Division III, and a .16-second improvement on his previous career-best time. He also ran the second leg of the Eagles’ 4x400-meter relay, which finished third in a time of 3:15.55, the ninth-fastest in school history and 23rd among Division III teams this season.

Emory University senior James Bassen set a conference and school record in the javelin throw at the 2015 University Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Atlanta, Georgia last weekend. Bassen’s throw of 61.87 meters, the sixth-best in Division III this season, broke the previous school record set by Jake Wheeler in 2008 (61.08 meters) and the previous UAA record, set by Washington’ Keith England in 2009 (60.48 meters). It marked the second-straight season that he won the event at the UAA Championships, and the fourth-straight season he earned all-UAA honors in the javelin. Bassen added all-UAA honors by placing third in the hammer throw with a distance of 44.77 meters and third in the discus throw with a toss of 41.33 meters. He totaled 22 points for the Eagles, helping Emory win its first UAA Outdoor Championship since the 2004 campaign.

Emory University junior Adam Rabushka won a pair of individual championships and totaled three all-conference honors at the 2015 University Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. Rabushka won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.10 seconds, the best time of his career. He later captured the conference title in the 400-meter hurdles with a finals time of 53.86 seconds. It marked the second time in his career that he has won each event at the UAA Outdoor Championships. Rabushka also placed third as a part of the Eagles’ 4x400-meter relay team, earned all-UAA honors with a time of 3:21.16. He totaled 21.5 points during the meet, helping Emory win its first UAA Outdoor Championship since the 2004 campaign.

Emory University senior James Bassen recorded a season-best mark in the hammer throw at the Mountain Lauren Invitational in Sewanee, Tennessee on Friday night. Bassen finished third in the event with a toss of 39.29 meters, the best throw this season by an Eagle, and a 2.59-meter improvement on his previous career best. He contributed six points towards the Eagles’ team total, helping the squad finish second out of seven teams at the meet.

Emory University sophomore Grant Murphy broke the program’s record in the outdoor 3,000-meter run at the Mountain Laurel Invitational in Sewanee, Tennessee on Friday night. Murphy won the event with a time of 8:31.29, smashing the previous school record of 8:41.22, set by former Eagle Paul Tufaro in 2004 at the Charlotte Invitational. His finish contributed 10 points towards the Eagles’ team total, helping the squad finish second out of seven teams at the meet.

Emory University freshman Charlie Hu had a pair of career-best jumps at the Catamount Classic in Cullowhee, North Carolina last weekend. Hu finished fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 13.03 meters, a .65-meter improvement on his previous career best and the third-best mark in the University Athletic Association this season. He added a 20th-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 5.88 meters, edging his previous career-best jump by a hundredth of a meter. Hu helped the Eagles finish fifth in the team standings at the meet.

Emory University freshman Daniel Pietsch recorded the best time by an Eagle this season in the 200-meter dash at the Catamount Classic in Cullowhee, North Carolina last weekend. Pietsch placed 13th in the event with a time of 22.11 seconds, a six-tenths of a second improvement on his previous top time, and the third-best mark in the University Athletic Association this year. He added an eighth-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.04 seconds, his third best mark of the season in the event, and behind only his two top times in the UAA rankings. Pietsch and the Eagles finished fifth in the team standings at the meet.

Emory University freshman Max Brown recorded the eighth-fastest time in the 1,500-meter run by a Division III competitor this season at the VertKlasse Meeting in High Point, North Carolina on Friday. Facing mostly NCAA Division I competition at the meet, Brown finished sixth in the event with a time of 3:55.27. The mark was a 15.07-second improvement on his previous career-best time, while rankings as the second-fastest time this year by a University Athletic Association competitor and the seventh-fastest in school history.

Emory University junior Spencer Koh was the Eagles’ top performer in a pair of field events at the VertKlasse Meeting in High Point, North Carolina last weekend. Facing mostly NCAA Division I competition, Koh finished fifth in the javelin throw with a mark of 51.09 meters, a.42-meter improvement on his previous career-best mark, and the third-best throw by a University Athletic Association competitor this season. He also finished eighth in the pole vault, clearing the bar at a height of 4.17 meters, his second-best mark of the campaign. Koh added a 13th-place finish in the 100-meter dash with a career-best time of 11.21 seconds.

Emory University junior Maxwell Hoberman won the triple jump at the Emory Classic on Saturday. Hoberman finished first in the event with a leap of 13.45 meters, the best by a University Athletic Association competitor this season, and the 15th-best in Division III this season. He added a 13th-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 6.17 meters, the fifth-best in the UAA in 2015, and finished fifth as the second leg of the Eagles’ 4x100-meter relay with a time of 42.88 seconds. Hoberman totaled 11 points during the meet, helping the Eagles finish first out of 22 scoring teams at the Emory Classic.

Emory University sophomore Grant Murphy recorded a personal-best time in the 1,500-meter run, winning the event at the Emory Classic on Saturday. Murphy finished first in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:58.21, a 15.55 second improvement on his previous career-best time in the event. His mark was the second-fastest by a University Athletic Association competitor this season, and the 14th-best in Division III. He also ran the leadoff leg of the Eagles’ 4x800-meter relay, which finished first with a time of 7:56.34. Murphy scored 12.5 points towards the team total, helping Emory finish first out of 22 scoring teams at the meet.

Emory University senior James Bassen won the javelin throw at the team’s season-opening meet last weekend, the Emory Invitational. Bassen won the event with a throw of 57.63 meters, the second-farthest throw of his career and the fifth-best mark in school history. The distance ranks as the seventh-best mark in Division III this year. Bassen also placed sixth in the discus throw with a toss of 40.75 meters. He totaled 13 points for the squad, helping the Eagles win the meet.

Emory University junior Adam Rabushka recorded the fastest 400-meter hurdles time in Division III this season at the Emory Invitational last weekend. Rabushka’s time of 53.56 seconds was good for a first-place finish, and was a personal-best mark in the event by over a second. He also finished eighth in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles after recording a time of 15.85 seconds in the preliminaries, and second as the second leg of the Eagles’ 4x400-meter relay team, which notched a time of 3:19.99, the second-best in Division III this year. Rabushka contributed 13 points towards the team total, helping Emory win its season-opening meet.

Emory University junior Maxwell Hoberman finished ninth in the triple jump at the 2015 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Hoberman recorded a jump of 14.08 meters in the event, the second-best mark of his career and the 10th-best in the program’s history.

Emory University junior Maxwell Hoberman won the conference title in both the triple jump and the long jump at the 2015 University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships in Chicago, Illinois. Hoberman won the triple jump on Saturday with a career-best mark of 14.49 meters, the fifth-best in the program’s history and tied for the ninth-best in Division III this year. Earlier in the meet, he won the long jump with a mark of 6.66 meters, another career-best mark for the junior. He became just the fourth men’s athlete in the program’s history to sweep the horizontal jumps at the UAA Indoor Championships, joining Troy Thompson (1995, 1996 and 1997), Ian Francis (2012) and Mike Moserowitz (2013). Hoberman added a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.92 seconds, the fastest time this season by an Eagle. Hoberman scored 24 points for the Eagles, helping the team finish third at the meet.

Emory University senior James Bassen recorded a personal-record distance while winning the weight throw at the Tiger Indoor Invitational in Sewanee, Tennessee on Saturday. Bassen notched a distance of 14.48 meters, .28 meters better than his previous career-best mark, and the seventh-best mark ever by an Eagle. In addition, the distance is the second-longest this season by a University Athletic Association competitor. Bassen contributed 10 points towards the Eagles’ team total, as Emory finished second out of nine teams at the meet.

Emory University sophomore Grant Murphy recorded the second-fastest mile time in the program’s history at the Samford Open in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday. Murphy’s time of 4:14.84 was a personal-best by 11.26 seconds, and is the fastest time by an Eagle this season. In addition, the time ranks as the 34th-fastest in Division III this season, and the third-fastest in the University Athletic Association.

Emory University freshman Max Brown registered one of the top times in the mile run in school history at the Buccaneer Invitational, hosted by East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Brown finished fourth in the seeded mile run with a time of 4:16.91, the second-fastest time in the University Athletic Association this season and fourth-fastest in school history. The time was a 7.59 second improvement on his previous season best in the event. He later ran the third leg of the Eagles’ distance medley relay team, which finished second in a time of 10:34.07, the 40th-fastest mark in Division III this season.

Emory University junior Spencer Koh won the pole vault at the USC Open, hosted by the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday. Koh finished first in the event, clearing the bar at a height of 4.20 meters, matching his second-best mark of the season. He also ran the 55-meter dash, finishing 38th with a time of 6.89 seconds.

Emory University senior Kevin Delaney recorded his best time of the season in the 800-meter run at the Hilton Garden Innvitational on Friday night at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Facing mostly NCAA Division I competition at the meet, Delaney finished 40th in the event with a time of 1:58.77. The time was a 1.76-second improvement on his previous season best, and ranks as the best converted mark this season by an Eagle and the fifth-best time in the University Athletic Association.

Emory University senior James Bassen recorded a career-best mark in the weight throw during the Emory Crossplex Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday. Bassen’s toss of 14.20 meters was good for a third-place finish in the event, and topped his previous career best by .51 meters. In addition, it was the second-best mark in the weight throw by a University Athletic Association competitor this season, and is tied for the tenth-best throw in the program’s history. Bassen scored six points for the Eagles at the meet, helping the squad finish second in the team standings.

Emory University freshman Shane Sullivan notched the fastest 3,000-meter run time this season by a University Athletic Association competitor, while in action at the Emory Crossplex Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday. Sullivan finished fourth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:41.99, the sixth-fastest time in the event in the program’s history. It was the fastest raw time in the event by a UAA runner this season by nearly 11 seconds, and the fastest converted time by 4.69 seconds. Sullivan’s finish in the 3,000-meter run contributed five points towards the Eagles’ team total, helping the squad finish second at the meet.

Emory University freshman Daniel Pietsch was the team’s top finisher in a pair of events at the East Tennessee State University Invitational in Johnson City, Tennessee on Friday and Saturday. Making his collegiate debut at the meet, Pietsch recorded the ninth-fastest 400-meter dash time in Division III this season, finishing sixth in the event with a time of 49.80 seconds. The time was also the fastest among University Athletic Association runner this year. He added a time of 23.07 seconds in the 200-meter dash, good for a 64th-place finish and the fifth-fastest UAA mark for the season.

Emory University freshman Max Brown recorded the top times by a Division III athlete this season in a pair of events at the Panther Indoor Icebreaker in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday. Competing in his first collegiate track and field meet, Brown finished third among non-Division I competitors in the mile run with a time of 4:24.50. He later ran the 400-meter leg of the Eagles’ distance medley relay team, which finished second overall. Brown helped the Eagles finish fifth among 15 teams at the meet.

Emory University junior Spencer Koh opened his 2014-15 indoor track and field season with a pair of second place finishes at the Panther Indoor Icebreaker in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday. Koh was the top Division III finisher and second among all non-Division I competitors in the pole vault at the meet. Competing in the event for the first time in his career, he cleared the bar at a height of 4.10 meters, tied for the 38th-best mark in Division III this season. He also ran the third leg of the Eagles’ 4x400-meter relay team helping the squad finish in a time of 3:27.56. Koh contributed to the Eagles’ fifth-place finish out of 15 teams at the meet.