The Slippery Rock University men’s outdoor track team competed at the Adidas Raleigh Relays this past weekend and earned 13 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference qualifying marks.
The two-day event was held by North Carolina State University, featuring a lot of Division I teams, including: Duke University, Wake Forest University, Coastal Carolina University, Rutgers University, Dartmouth College and many others.
“It was a good experience to compete with great competition like Division I schools,” junior distance runner Ryan Thompson said. “Despite not so favorable weather conditions, we still had some great performances.”
The pole vault squad had an exceptional day of competition, with Jordan Pacheco leading with a fourth place finish. His vault measured 4.70 meters. Cody Colagrande and Michael Horrigan took 15th and 24th place with vaults of 4.55 and 4.40 meters respectively.
The throwers also had a great day in the field with David Reinhardt having top performances in all three events he competed in. Reinhardt took 15th place in the discus with a throw of 41.22 meters, 16th in the javelin with a 52 meter throw and 23rd in the hammer throw at 51.26 meters. Nick Garrucio placed 27th in the hammer throw with a throw of 49.19 meters.
A lot of strong performances took place on the track. Monte Chapman and James Chandler competed in the 400-meter run and finished at times of 49.78 and 50.04. The men placed 30th and 38th out of 102 men.
Jacob VanHouten and Andrew Schroder ran the 400 hurdles with times of 55.91 and 56.92.
The 4×100 meter relay team consisted of Erik Record, Monte Chapman, Brandon Vanderbrook and Hunter Williams. The relay team finished 10th with a time of 42.54, their season best. Jacob VanHouten, James Chandler, Williams and Chapman made up the 4×400 meter relay. The squad finished first in their heat and ninth overall with a time of 3:18.22.
The distance squad also had a good weekend, starting with Jaron Martin, who ran a personal best at the meet. Martin competed in the 5,000 meter run and clocked a 14:59.86 finish. This was Martin’s first time running under 15 minutes in the event.
Tyler Melius and Thompson also had a solid performance in the 1,500 meter run with times of 3:58.46 and 3:58.70.
The 4×800 meter relay consisted of Steve Shepard, Jeremy Parsons, Thompson and Melius. The relay finished ninth overall with a time of 7:52.30.
“Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had some outstanding performances,” SRU head coach John Papa said. “Jaron Martin had a significant performance in the 5,000 meter run. Ryan Thompson won his section of the 1,5000 meter and ran an impressive 1:55 relay split in the 4×800 meter relay. I am confident that our men can focus and perform in almost any weather condition.”
The Green and White’s next competition is in Kutztown, Pennsylvania April 9 at the Mondshein Multi Day One event.
