Philly Edges Providence at 80th Olympics

By Bob Tutunjian

(From The Armenian Weekly AYF Olympics Insert)

The Philadelphia AYF came from behind late in the day to eke out a 10-point victory over defending champion Providence. The final tally of 143-133 marked the closest margin of victory since 1966 when Montreal topped Providence by a score of 103-95.5. (The Olympics in those earlier days were much smaller in scope, since there were far fewer events and they were generally closer affairs.) On Friday, Team “Sebouh” went 1-2 in men’s golf and dominated the swimming events to build a healthy 55-39 lead. But Providence bounced back in the Sunday morning track and field events to take the lead 84-74. The two teams continued to go back and forth with Providence holding on to the top spot most of the intensely hot and humid afternoon. Going into the final relays and the pentathlon events, the “Varantians” were clinging to a slim lead at 126-117. However, it was already known that the “Sebouhs” were doing well in both of the pentathlons, and they jumped into the lead by six points after those events. Philly would have to do well in the last three relays to hang on—and they came through by beating Providence in all three of them.

The “Sebouhs” earned the victory with many of the same members from the past few years. All of their gold medals came from veterans: the Soorikian sisters, Molly Mamourian, Mike Kaiserian, Aram Keshgegian, and Mark Santerian. This group accounted for 71 points, about half of the team’s total. Philly went on to add another 31 points in all of relays, winning 4 of the 8 team events. The remaining members provided the necessary depth to bring the Cup back to Philadelphia for the first time since they hosted the games in 2010.

Providence also had their core of veteran scorers back. Their golds came from Stephen and Lynne Tutunjian, Andrew Hintlian, Siran Krikorian, and Kyle Byrd. However, they had big contributions from junior members like Emily Sarkissian and Ani Comella, as well as three silvers from Gary Dodakian. But they were weaker in the relays this year, where they only scored 18 points in total, which was 13 less than Philly.

Last year’s host chapter, Greater Boston, took the third spot with 86 points. This was well below their second place effort last year when they recorded a total of 145. The “Nejdehs” were hurt by a number of their members staying home due to college conflicts, as well as Araxi Krafian being sidelined from the track. Boston rang up this total while collecting only four golds, and two of those were in relays. But Vigen Sarkisov defended his title in the pentathlon to rack up 15 points.

Next year’s host Detroit placed fourth again, improving to 65 points compared to 49 from last year. They were led by triple winner Taleen Shahrigian and rookie pentathlon champion Knar Topouzian. But the “K-T” team was weakened by the fact that only nine points came from their men. That will probably be a priority for them in planning for next year’s games.

New Jersey took the fifth position as they did last year, scoring 43 points. Their only individual gold came from Ani Sarajian, but the girls rose up near the end of the day to surprise everyone and win the 4 x 200 relay.

Granite City and Montreal tied with 22 points each. Granite was led by perennial victor Michelle Hagopian’s 13 points, while the Canadians had newcomer Matt Khatchadourian dominate three swimming events. Chicago and Worcester tied for the eighth spot with 20 points as Daron Bedian contributed 12 points for the “Ararats” on the track.

The host Washington chapter finished tenth with 19 points. North Andover was next with six points, and Toronto scored two points. Racine participated but could not crack into the scoring.

Overall participation was down slightly from last year but still totaled 187 entrants. There was no standout individual chapter in terms of numbers. The top five chapters all had between 22 and 26 members competing.

Individual Awards

There were seven high scorers with 15 points each and Philadelphia had three of them—all women. Molly Mamourian started things rolling on Friday by winning the three freestyle events in the pool. The former University of Pennsylvania swimmer won a very close race in her first event and then eased to two more victories. This was Molly’s third Olympics and marked the first time she won three events.

On Sunday, sisters Angela and Alyssa Soorikian swept the sprints and jumping events, respectively. It was only the second time in Olympics history that two sisters scored 15 points in the same Olympics. Christine and Lynne Tutunjian turned the trick for the first time during the 2004 games in Chicago. Angela is 21 and is pursuing a career to be a registered nurse, while 19-year-old Alyssa is a sophomore at Rutgers majoring in biology. They have competed regularly at the Olympics and are third-generation “Sebouhs” (their father Ed was an AYF swimming medalist in his day). Both have been high scorers previously but never in the same year. The sisters were varsity track and field athletes in high school and they kept in shape over the summer by playing in an adult soccer league.

Taleen Shahrigian of Detroit was the fourth triple-gold medalist for the women as she swept the three distance events, a feat she narrowly missed doing last year. In 2012, Taleen had an impressive first Olympics as she broke records in the 800 and 1600 runs, but that effort took its toll as she finished a close second in the 400. This year she ran to conserve her energy in the heat and used her strong finishing kick to win the three golds. Taleen is also a third generation AYFer. Her father Dave was a pentathlon champion in the 1980’s and her grandfather Harry Derderian was a 10-time AYF tennis champion. Taleen is entering her senior year at Northville High in Michigan and is one of the top distance runners in the state. She has a personal best of 11:03 in the 3200 and 5:13 in the 1600-meter runs, as well as 18:25 for a 5K cross-country course.

On the men’s side, newcomer Matt Khatchadourian from Montreal broke two swimming records on his way to triple gold. In the track and field events, “Varantian” Stephen Tutunjian (another third-generation member) won triple gold for the fifth time in the jumps. The former Lehigh track captain graduated in 2012 and is pursuing a graduate degree in bioengineering at Tufts University. He left Lehigh as their record holder in the triple jump and a two-time NCAA Championship qualifier in that event. With his 15 points this year, Steve hit 100 points in career scoring as the leading active male. He joins his sister Lynne and mother Shooshan in the 100 Point Club—the only family with three members to do so.

Providence also had Andrew Hintlian who dominated the middle distances on the track to win his second career high-scoring trophy. Last year, he won the 200 and 400 but came up short in the 800 to gather 13 points. Andrew is entering his junior year at the University of Rhode Island and is majoring in marine affairs and environmental/natural resource economics with a 3.75 GPA. He was a varsity cross-country and track athlete in high school with personal bests of 1:58 in the 800 and 4:37 in the 1600-meter runs. He did run for URI during his freshman year but then chose to focus on his class work.

Both pentathlon champions won in relatively easy fashion. Boston’s Vigen Sarkisov defended his title with 2,684 points, an improvement over his 2012 total of 2,560. Vigen won all of the events except for the final 1600-meter run, and won by almost 300 points. On the women’s side, rookie Knar Topouzian from Detroit won every event except for the high jump to accumulate 2,326 points and win by 250 points.

Michelle Hagopian of Granite City was one of this year’s record setters as she lowered her own golf standard to 40. The two other records were set by Matt Khatchadourian from Montreal: He first shattered the 50 breaststroke mark of 27.53 set by Detroit’s Raffi Karapetian in 1991. Matt lowered this time by over a second to 26.29. He then took Dan Kaiserian’s 50 butterfly time of 23.65 (from 2008) down to 22.96.

The Ernest Nahigian Award for sportsmanship and fraternal spirit was presented to Ara Sarajian of New Jersey and Sevan Donoian from Providence. The Cory Tosoian Trophy was won by Jeff Hagopian from Granite City for his victory in the alumni golf event. Finally, the host Washington chapter won the award as the Most Improved.

Men’s Track & Field

Stephen Tutunjian of Providence continued his dominance of the men’s jumping events, taking the long jump and triple jump for the seventh straight year. His distance in the long jump (21’8.25”) was 6” behind his record from last year but good enough to win by more than 3’ over Alex Vosghanian from Boston. Steve was 3’ short of his triple jump record at 45’5” this time and again bested Alex who recorded a leap of 35’4”. Finally Stephen was pressed by Alex in the high jump to win by just 2 inches at 5’4”.

Steve’s teammate Andrew Hintlian swept the middle distance events after recording 13 points last year. He started his day by finishing ahead of training partner Gary Dodakian at 2:14.17 in the 800. Gary kicked past four other runners on the last lap to get the silver. Then Andrew showed his speed in the 200 with a time of 23.87, over a second ahead of Boston’s Shant Mahrokhian. Finally he eased to the gold in the 400, running 57.78 with Philadelphia’s Richard Keshgegian in second.

The men’s distance events were both won by Daron Bedian from Chicago. Daron bounced back from two silvers in these events last year. In the morning 3200, he ran 12:12.00, 9 seconds ahead of Gary Dodakian. Daron and Gary also went 1-2 in the 1600 with a winning time of 5:21.91. Daron then took bronze in the 800 for a total of 12 individual points.

The remaining track and field events were very evenly contested with no other double winners. The throwing events were reduced due to the fact that the javelin is prohibited in Virginia. Stephen Hagopian of Granite City edged Aras Hackikian from Greater Boston by about 2 feet in the discus with a toss of 99’4”. Then, Armen Nercesian from Detroit heaved 37’7.5” on his last throw to best defending champ Michael Tutunjian of Providence by 7 inches. Haig Pakhchanian from Washington took gold in the 100 leaning to win in 11.79 over Boston’s Shant Mahrokhian, who was clocked in 11.80. Aram Keshgegian took first for Philly in the hurdles with Aras Hachikian in second (18.31 to 19.75).

Greater Boston won the 4 x 100 relay in 48.06, while Philadelphia took the 4 x 400 at 3:56.66. Providence was the runner-up in both of the relays. Boston came back to decisively win the co-ed relay at 1:49.38 over Philly, which was almost 2 seconds behind.

Women’s Track & Field

This year it was the Soorikian sisters on the track and on the field: Angela won the sprints and Alyssa triumphed in the jumps. Angela won the 50-100-200 in easy fashion; her times were 7.35, 13.47, and 30.19, respectively. She topped Alycia McCarthy of New Jersey in the 100 and 200, while Ani Bournazian from D.C. took silver in the 50. Alyssa swept through the jumping events. In the long jump, she went 14’10” over a trio of Providence jumpers headed by Sarah Varadian at 13’8”. Then in the triple jump Alyssa leapt 32’5” to beat the same three “Varantians,” only this time Sarah’s niece Emily Varadian won the silver. Finally Alyssa and Emily battled again in the high jump with Alyssa getting her third gold at 4’7”.

The third 15-point scorer for the track and field women was Taleen Shahrigian from Detroit. After scoring 13 points last year, Taleen left no doubts as she swept all three events. She used a strong finishing kick to record times of 5:43.59, 2:29.88, and 1:07.63. Providence’s Emily Sarkissian took the silver all three times.

As with the men, there were no other double winners in the other track and field events. The hurdles saw last year’s bronze medalist, Kenar Charchaflian from Worcester, take the gold in 20.12. Providence’s Ani Comella charged hard over the last few hurdles to win the silver. Once again, Michelle Hagopian recorded her eighth straight victory in the discus. New Jersey’s Ani Sarajian was almost 20 feet behind in second place. Ani came back to defend her shot put title on her last throw, which sailed out to 29’7.5” and 8.5” past the throw of Siran Krikorian of Providence. But Siran bounced back with the surprise of the field events as she threw the baseball 172’3”, which was 20 feet beyond her previous best. She became the first person to best Michelle Hagopian, who was second at 169’7”. Michelle had a streak of 7 consecutive 15-point performances that ended this year—a feat that had never been accomplished before. Her 13 points raised her career total to 118, which is second on the active scoring list. At 24, she still has a good chance to surpass the women’s career point leaders Nancy Gavoor and Jill Tosoian Dolik, with 144 each.

The Philadelphia girls won the 4 x 100 relay in 58.15 comfortably ahead of Greater Boston. But then the “Sebouhs” had to settle for second in the 4 x 200 about 3 seconds behind a surprising New Jersey team that recorded 2:11.32.