Over the weekend, the Slippery Rock University men’s outdoor track team competed in the Bison Outdoor Classic at Bucknell University in Lewrisburg, Pennsylvania. The team recorded 28 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) provisional marks and four NCAA provisional marks in the face of some tough competition, around 20 Division I teams attended the event.
“Our kids did well, we had a lot of PSAC marks, and we had some big time performances,” Rock head coach John Papa said.
The biggest performance of the weekend came from senior Ryan Thompson, who broke the SRU 1,500-meter run record for the second time this season with a time of 3:46.34, beating his previous time from the Raleigh Relays which was 3:48.20. He was under a second away from matching the PSAC record of 3:45.64.
“Last year his best was around 3:52, he’s improved around six seconds, and he’s less than a second away from the PSAC record,” Papa said. “Bucknell had perfect conditions for him, he’ll need something close to that again if he wants to break the record.”
Thompson was named the PSAC Male Track Athlete of the Week for his performance over the weekend.
The Rock had three top-ten finishers in the 100-meter dash, with senior Brandon Vanderbrook leading the way in second place with a time of 10.87, followed by freshman Ian Nieves in third place with a time of 10.92, and then sophomore Jeff bailey in tenth place with a time of 11.12. In the 200-meter dash, sophomore Colin Darby placed in seventh place with a time of 22.24, followed by Vanderbrook in 14th place with a time of 22.40, then freshman Liam Okal in 18th place with a time of 22.48.
In the 400-meter dash, junior James Chandler placed 16th with a time of 49.56, followed by sophomore Isaac Moodie in 41st place with a time of 50.56. In the 800-meter run Thompson placed 12th with a time of 1:53.20 followed by senior Tyler Palenchak in 65th place with a time of 1:57.13. Palenchak also finished 42nd in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:01.51 along with sophomore Josh Rader in 47th place with a time of 4:02.39, and in the 10,000-meter run, junior Jeremy Parsons placed 34th with a time of 30:47.24, also an NCAA provisional mark.
The Rock recorded five PSAC marks in the 400-meter hurdles, their most in a single event, with senior Savon Salter leading the way in ninth place with a time of 54.97, followed by senior Jacob VanHouten in 17th place with a time of 55.55, then Nieves in 27th place with a time of 56.27, followed by senior Zac Patton in 28th place with a time of 56.30, and finally senior Logan Mooney rounded out the group with a 32nd place finish in 56.55. Nieves also placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.84. In the 4×100-meter relay, the group consisting of Darby, Nieves, Bailey, and Vanderbrook placed second with a time of 41.59, and in the 4×400-meter relay, Darby, Bailey, Salter, and Chandler recorded another second place finish with a time of 3:18.33.
In the pole vault, junior Jordan Pacheco placed seventh with a clearance distance of 4.65 meters followed by junior Andrew Koksal in ninth place with a clearance distance of 4.50 meters. In the triple jump, junior Caleb Smithco placed eighth with a distance of 14.10 meters followed by sophomore Jesse Romanchak in 16th place with a distance of 13.43 meters.
Graduate student David Reinhardt and senior JJ Ollio recorded the final NCAA provisional marks for the weekend, with Reinhardt placed third in the Javelin with a distance of 64.09 meters, and Ollio placing fifth in the Discus with a distance of 49.86 meters. Ollio also placed tenth in the shot put with a distance of 15.61 meters and Reinhardt also placed ninth in the shot put with a distance of 47.44 meters.
Reinhardt’s javelin throw was the second best in his career, which makes his recovery from elbow surgery a year ago a remarkable feat.
“The Javelin is a funny event, you have to hit it just right, and as you get better you’ll get more consistent,” Papa said. “So David needs to get to that point by the (PSAC) championships.”
The Rock will host the SRU Open on Thursday, where it is expected to thunderstorm at some point during the day, which could cancel a lot of the events especially if there is an instance of lighting.
However, Papa said that most of the athletes will rest the next two meets as they are gearing up for the PSAC Championships.
“Basically right now it’s just fine tuning, and getting people rested up for the Championships,” Papa said.
The PSAC Championships will be held May 4-6.
