Lane five is normally given to the second-seeded runner in a track and field meet. When a runner is placed second, it means he is usually not expected to win. However, lane five has only meant one thing to Aulton Kohn: a championship.

At the Big East Championship in Akron, Ohio, this weekend, Kohn added another championship title to his resume, winning the 200-meter dash for the first time in his career with a time of 21.34 seconds. Kohn scored 18 points for the Orange during the weekend, helping the men’s team place eighth with 41 points. The women’s team placed 12th scoring 30 points.

It was Kohn’s third Big East Championship victory in his career. His other two titles came the past two indoor seasons in the 60-meter.

Kohn and three of his teammates received all-conference status. Senior Dan Pribula (shot put), senior Jake Palas (heptathlon) and junior Jillian Drouin (pentathlon) also received the honor by placing in the top three of their respective events.

Kohn arrived as the defending 60-meter champion and he hoped to repeat. On Saturday, during the preliminary trials of the 60- and 200-meters, Kohn kept himself in second place. It placed him in the fifth lane.

‘I feel more comfortable in lane five,’ Kohn said. ‘It’s my favorite lane, the one I won my first championship in, so I try to keep myself in that lane.’

On day two of the meet, Kohn competed in the 60-meters earlier in the morning, and suffered a disappointing loss to Rutgers’ Marcel Coleman. Kohn had an hour and a half to prepare himself for his next race, the 200 meters.

‘At the beginning of the 200, I wasn’t mad about the 60, but I was really disappointed,’ Kohn said. ‘I told myself ‘I’m going to win this 200 no matter what.”

At the beginning of the 200-meter, Kohn broke out from the blocks in the lead, but with 60 meters left in the race, Coleman started gaining ground on him.

‘When I saw Coleman behind me I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m not having this today,” Kohn said. ‘So I went even more all out until I reached the finish line.’

Rutgers has been one of the biggest rivals for Kohn throughout his track career at Syracuse; he said that winning the 200 was ‘payback.’ Last year, at the Big East Championship, Kohn placed fifth in the 200, Coleman placed third.

‘He ran a so-so 60, and then a really good 200,’assistant coach David Hegland said. ‘Winning the 200 was something he hasn’t done before and I know that’s one thing he really wanted.

‘Aulton has run some really good 200’s before but not at the conference meet, so to win this was really big for him.’

Kohn already qualified for the IC4A championships, held on March 3-4 in Boston, and is on the provisional mark list for the NCAA Championship. Kohn is 14th on the list of the top 16 qualifiers for the meet. As long as Kohn stays in the top 16 times, he will qualify for NCAA’s.

‘When we left on Thursday night for Ohio, I was pretty much telling myself to concentrate on the 60 then not lose the 200 later on in the day,’ Kohn said. ‘But then at the meet, after I lost the 60, I couldn’t lose the 200, too. I couldn’t do two loses in one day.’

Kohn said he didn’t feel the pressure of the team score because he knew that no matter how he preformed, his mother and coaches would be proud of his performance.

Despite Kohn’s win, there were some disappointments at the meet. Juniors Marcus Vaughn and Ramon Sosa did not score in the hurdles. Vaughn false started and did not even compete.

‘Vaughn and Sosa didn’t have a good weekend,’ Hegland said. ‘They had a little bit of illness and ultimately didn’t have a good weekend, those guys were real disappointed and they should be pretty motivated coming into the IC4A meet.’

Michael LeBlanc placed fifth in the 60, after placing first in the preliminary race and setting the Big East Championship record in the event with a time of 6.71 seconds.

Hegland was pleased that the men’s team beat Villanova but was not completely satisfied with the eighth place the team received.

‘We left a lot of points out there,’ Hegland said. ‘With guys like Vaughn, Sosa and LeBlanc not scoring, it really hurt us.’

‘I thought the men’s team did pretty well,’ Kohn said. ‘I wanted us to place in the top eight because that’s half way in the Big East, but I think we can do much better. We don’t have the depth teams like Louisville and Notre Dame have; they just have more people than we do.’

Published on February 18, 2007 at 12:00 pm