The Slippery Rock men’s outdoor track and field team reached 21 PSAC qualifying standards and one NCAA mark at the Shamrock Invitational at Myrtle Beach last weekend.
Redshirt freshman Tyler Kachelries recorded the only NCAA mark for SRU with a 61.58 meter throw in the javelin. Kachelries placed sixth in the event.
“Ty is a dedicated worker and a student of throwing the javelin,” head coach John Papa said. “We feel that he can be a consistent top performer in the PSAC, and compete at the Division II national level. He’s redshirted because he was having some elbow problems.”
Kachelries was followed by sophomore Max Knight, who placed 11th in the event with a throw of 56.59 meters. Knight just missed the NCAA provisional mark.
Sophomore David Reinhardt placed sixth in the discus with a throw of 45.75 meters in the discus event.
Reinhardt also had a 13.62 meter throw in the shot put, and reached the conference mark with a hammer throw toss of 48.58 meters. He was the best-placed rock thrower in three events of the Shamrock Invitational.
Senior Billy Martin and junior Nick Turk also reached the PSAC standard in the hammer throw with tosses of 47.61 meters (Martin) and 44.17 meters (Turk).
Freshman Jordan Pacheco led SRU pole vaulters with a seventh place finish at a clearance of 4.60 meters.
Sophomore Cody Colagrande and senior John Piserchio both had clearances of 4.45 meters.
“Shamrock was a weird meet for me, especially because I really haven’t had a rest since nationals,” Pacheco said. “I didn’t feel all that good coming in.”
Senior Victor Santoyo also had a seventh place finish in the high jump with a clearance of 1.90 meters.
Junior Hunter Williams placed seventh in the 400 meter dash with his fastest time of the season. He ran a time of 48.52 seconds and proceeded to run a time of 22.06 seconds in the 200 meter dash. Wiliams almost reached another season best time in the 200 meter dash. Freshman Brandon Vanderbrook followed Williams in the 200 meter dash with a 22.70 second dash.
The best finish of the Invitational came from senior Michael Beegle in the 5,000 meter run. Beegle placed 5th with an impressive time of 15:22.21.
The final top-ten finishes came from junior Tyler Melius and sophomore Nate Zigler. Melius placed 9th in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:55.98, and Zigler scored 5,711 points in the decathlon. Senior Andrew Greenslade almost had a top-ten finish in the decathlon with a score of 5,579 points to land him in 11th.
The final PSAC standards reached at the Shamrock Invitational came from senior Trevor Foley with a time of 55.33 seconds, and senior Nathaniel Helferrich with a dash of 55.65 seconds in the 400 meter dash.
Slippery Rock men’s track will travel to the Carolinas with a trip to the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State this weekend.
