Riverdale, N.Y. (November 28, 2006)?Exactly a half century ago, Manhattan shot putter Ken Bantum stepped into the circle at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Austrailia and barely missed giving the Americans a 1-2-3 sweep in the event. Fresh off of his 1956 NCAA National Championship in the shot put, Bantum took fourth place on the world stage, coming up seven inches short of Czech Jiri Skobla, who claimed the Bronze Medal.
Skobla took third place with a mark of 57' 11” (17.65m), while Bantum's top throw measured 57' 4 ?” (17.48m). Only a few months earlier at the NCAA Championships, Bantum brought home Manhattan's third national individual title by posting a mark of 60' 1,” nearly three feet better than his Olympic performance.
Over its 79-year history, Manhattan Track and Field has had 14 Olympians come through the program. Manhattan also boasts 10 NCAA Individual National Championships as well as the 1973 NCAA Indoor Team Championship, which marks the only time a school from the northeast region won an NCAA team title. Most recently, Thomas Jacob Freeman claimed the 2004 NCAA Championship in the men's hammer throw, while that same year, Aliann Pompey, Manhattan's first female NCAA Champion, competed at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
