By Madeline Williams
Sports Editor
The Slippery Rock University men’s track and field team recorded 42 individual Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference qualifying performances over spring break.
The Rock won five events at the Washington and Lee Track and Field Carnival on the last weekend of the break.
Junior Jonathan Boyd broke the meet record in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.86 seconds.
Boyd was followed by senior Ethan Geisler, with a time of 15.20 seconds.
Geisler went on to win an event of his own, dominating the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.75 seconds.
Juniors Trevor Foley (54.28) and Nathaniel Helfferich (56.98) took second and fourth place.
Senior DJ Chisom led the sprinters with a first place finish in the 100-meter dash, running 10.95 seconds.
Chisom also placed third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.80 seconds.
Both of Slippery Rock sprint relays dominated the invite.
Chisom, senior Mason McLaughlin, and sophomores Hunter Williams and Nick Shrift captured the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 42.00 seconds.
“Our 4×1 relay did a great job at Virginia for it being one of our first meets of the season,” Chisom said. “It was Shrift’s first time running the lead leg and my first time as anchor leg. We’re still building chemistry in that event and it will only get better as we get closer to PSACs. I really am proud of Shrift for stepping up at the last minute. I think he did a great job.”
The 4×400-meter relay team of Geisler, Foley, McLaughlin, and Williams won first place with a time of 3:17.70.
“Being down in the better weather got us running outside earlier,” Foley said. “We got to train all week on a nice outdoor track and that’s huge to be able to train for the events like 400 hurdles and the 4×400, which we can’t really run indoors.”
Junior Victor Santoyo placed third in the high jump with a leap of 1.94 meters.
Freshmen Michael Shiverdecker (4.55 meters) and Cody Colagrande (4.25 meters) both hit the PSAC standard in the pole vault.
Freshman David Reinhardt placed second in the javelin with a toss of 59.89 meters.
He also qualified for PSACs in the shot put, discuss, and hammer throw.
Senior Kyle Toms threw 15.35 meters in shot put, good for a second place finish, and freshman Zachary Wisneski placed second in discus with a throw of 44.46 meters.
“I think we are definitely where we want to be right now,” Foley said. “Coach has been working us like crazy and we are still running faster at this point in the year than we have in past years. If we are running this well with how hard practices have been, we should put up some awesome times once we start to taper.”
At the Shamrock Invite the weekend before, Reinhardt posted the sixth-best men’s javelin mark for Division II this season.
Reinhardt threw for 62.12 meters and earned fourth place.
Senior Cameron Daugherty won the pole vault and set a new stadium record, with a clearance of 5.05 meters.
In the 800-meter run, senior Kevin Jewel recorded a win in his heat with a time of 1:55.53.
A small portion of the team heads back down south to the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State University this weekend.
