COMPLETE RESULTS
San Diego, CA--The bulk of the Men's Track and Field kicked off their season today at the PLNU Invitational Meet, hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University. This meet served as an opportunity for athletes to test their spring break fitness and get some qualifying marks for championship meets. Despite not competing with points in mind, Williams was 3rd overall with 114 points. Tufts won the meet with 144 points, while Cal Poly Pomona finished 2nd with 115.5 points.
The Ephs first competed in the field events. In the javelin, James Heinl '19 and Tom Riley '18 finished 6th and 8th, with respective marks of 50.07m and 43.53m. Riley's mark was a personal best, boding well for his improvement in the decathlon. Competing later in the 110 hurdles, Riley returned to run 16.15 for 7th overall, qualifying for Division III New Englands.
In the high jump, senior Ian Outhwaite '17 continued his successful campaign after a long injury layoff, jumping over the bar at 1.93m, matching his personal best, qualifying for Division III New Englands, and finishing in 2nd overall. He returned later in the day for the triple jump, where, joined by Christian Holway '19, he finished in 4th overall, also in a personal best of 13.04m and qualifying for Division III New Englands. Holway finished 6th with a mark of 12.80m.
Holway also competed in the long jump, joined by Connor Harris '18. Holway performed well, jumping 6.56m for 5th and qualifying for Division III New Englands, but it was Harris who won the day, leaping 6.81m to win the event.
In the pole vault, Pierceson Brown '18 had a solid day, finishing 5th by clearing 4.25m. His mark qualifies him for Division III New Englands as well.
In the shot put, the last field event before the Ephs began competing on the track, the Ephs were highly successful. Competing for the first time since the NCAA Indoor Championship, first-year Magnus Herweyer '20 led the way, notching a mark of 16.63m to win the event, a new personal best and 3rd all time for the Ephs. It appears likely that this mark qualifies Herweyer for the NCAA Outdoor Championship. Not far behind Herweyer in the standings, co-captain Chris Lyons '17 threw 14.34m for 4th place. And behind Lyons, Liam Pembroke '18 threw 13.72m for 6th place, qualifying for Division III New Englands along with his two teammates. Returning later in the discus, Herweyer won that event as well, throwing 46.56m to qualify for All New Englands.
Although certainly still adjusting to California weather, the Ephs who competed on the track performed very well. In the 1500m, co-captain Peter Hale '17, competing for the first time since his victory in the 3000m at the NCAA Indoor Championship, ran a large personal best of 3:52.88, finishing in 4th place overall, qualifying for All New Englands. In the same heat, first-year Tristan Colaizzi '20 competed well, running 3:58.51 in his 1500 debut, qualifying for Division III New Englands. In the second heat, Austin Anderson '19 had a commanding performance, setting in the pack for a pedestrian first 800 before hammering the last 700 meters to win his heat in a personal best of 4:01.93, also qualifying for Division III New Englands. Just behind Anderson was first-year Kevin LaFleche '20, who also had a ferocious kick to finish his debut 1500 in 4:03.35. In the third heat, first-year Ben Hearon '20 also showed massive improvement, finishing 2nd in 4:07.55.
In the 400-meter dash, Elliott Fong '19 finished 9th in 50.87, qualifying for Division III New Englands. Fong later returned for the 200, joined by fellow sophomore Jeremy Thaller '19. In that event, Fong ran a wind-aided 22.89, qualifying for Division III New Englands. Thaller had a brilliant performance, running a personal best of 22.25 with legal wind, qualifying for All New Englands and finishing 9th overall. Thaller would also compete in the 100 meter dash, where he ran a wind-aided time of 10.84, winning his heat and finishing in 4th overall. That time also qualifies Thaller for All New Englands.
In the 800 meter run, Alex Cowen '18 competed well, running a time of 1:56.10 for 6th overall, and qualifying for Division III New Englands.
In the 5000 meter run, the last track event in which the Ephs competed, every Eph qualified for Division III New Englands. Noah Williams '17 made a bid for the win that ultimately came up just short, but he finished 2nd in a time of 15:02.44. Behind Williams, two first-years, Will McGovern '20 and Peter Kirgis '20 ran intelligent races, backing off the pace early on before working with each other to push the pace in the latter stages of the race. McGovern ran 15:16.69 for 7th place, while Kirgis ran 15:17.13 for 8th. No first-year has had a faster outdoor 5000m debut than these two for at least 6 years. Behind the first-years, co-captain David Folsom '17 also ran well, finishing in 15:22.87. Zeke Cohen '19 rounded out the Ephs with a time of 15:29.10.
Competing in the decathlon elsewhere, at the UC Riverside Spring Track Classic, co-captain Tobias Muellers '18 had quite a performance. He finished in 6th overall and 1st among Division III competition with 6547 points, just 20 fewer points than his All-American performance at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championship. Muellers had personal bests in the shot put (11.46m), javelin (49.09m), 110 hurdles (15.83), and most impressively, the 400 (49.37). This performance is likely good enough to qualify Muellers for the NCAA Outdoor Championship, where he should be contesting for his 3rd straight All-American performance.
The Ephs will return to competition on April 1, at the California Collegiate Meet, hosted by the University of California San Diego.
