The Slippery Rock University men’s track team dominated their own event last Thursday, as they won nine events at the SRU Open.
Along with nine events wins, Rock athletes reached two National Collegiate Athletic Association provisional marks and 18 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference marks.
“Our team has been training hard all season so we can peak at the conference meet,” pole vaulter Cody Colagrande said. “We all went out there this past meet and performed like we knew we could. All around, this team as a whole had their ups and downs but still did very well.”
The pole vault crew had an excellent day, with a tie for first place, with Michael Horrigan and Jordan Pacheco both vaulting 4.80 meters. The two exceeded the NCAA provisional mark of 4.67 meters. Their vault currently sits fifth among all pole vaulters in Division II athletics.
Cody Colagrande and Andrew Koksal followed in third and fourth place with vaults of 4.65 meters and 4.50 meters. Both men met the PSAC qualification height, and Colagrande missed the NCAA provisional mark by only 0.02 meters.
The Rock throwers had an amazing day on the field, sweeping first place in all four throwing events. David Reinhardt took first place in both the discus and javelin with throws of 57.56 meters and 46.51 meters. Reinhardt also threw hammer and took second place with a throw of 49.13 meters.
Nick Garuccio also competed in the hammer throw and took first at 49.44 meters. Trevor Miller took the win in the shot put at 15.0 meters, with Jerrod Galloway following in second with a throw of 14.63 meters.
Adam Leeper also had a successful day in the pit taking second in the long jump with a distance of 6.64 meters and placed second in the triple jump at 13.56 meters. Both jumps were PSAC qualifying distances.
The sprint squad performed well, with Hunter Williams setting the bar high with two event wins. He took first place in the 100-meter dash in 10.91 seconds and ran the 200-meter dash in 22.92 seconds. Erik Record and Brandon Vanderbrook competed in the 100-meter dash also, taking third and fourth with identical times of 11.08 seconds. Monte Chapman rounded out the top five in the event with a time of 11.18 seconds.
Jacob VanHouten and Logan Mooney took first and second place in the 400-meter hurdles with times of 55.20 and 56.66 seconds, both of which were PSAC qualifying times.
The 4×400 meter relay rounded out the performances on Thursday with Mooney, James Chandler, Andrew Schroder and Zac Patton running a time of 3:28.14.
The multi-event athletes finished their performances on Friday morning with a completion of the decathlon. Noah Bostick, Ben Kloepping, Nathan Zigler and Eric Lee all competed in the event.
“We had a solid day of performances in most of the events,” SRU head coach John Papa said. “Michael Horrigan and Jordan Pacheco had an excellent day in the pole vault, as well as Hunter Williams, Jacob VanHouten and the entire throwing squad.”
The Green and White will travel to Bucknell University for the Bison Outdoor Classic this Saturday and Sunday and return home for the Dave Labor Invitational on Saturday, April 18.
