The Rock sent a select group of athletes to compete at the Grand Valley State University Big Meet at Grand Valley State in Michigan. Out of the 11 men sent to represent the Rock, there were 10 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) qualifying marks and three NCAA provisional marks.
Highlighting the meet was senior Anderson Novalin, who broke his own SRU and Haitian national record in the shot put after breaking the original records last week at Youngstown State University. Novalin set the new records with a toss of 17.26 meters, which is also an NCAA provisional mark. Senior JJ Ollio joined Novalin in hitting the NCAA provisional mark with his own throw of 16.95 meters. Novalin took fourth in the shot-put event and Ollio followed in eighth.
The third SRU athlete to hit the NCAA provisional mark in their event was senior Jordan Pacheco in the pole vault. Pacheco cleared 4.85 meters, just missing his season best of 4.90 meters.
On the track, The Rock was well represented in the sprinting events. Junior Collin Darby and Sophomore Ian Nieves hit PSAC marks in the 60-meter dash, Darby with a time of 7.09 seconds and Nieves running 7.16 seconds. Junior Isaac Moodie hit a PSAC mark in the 200-meter dash to take 22nd in 22.30 seconds. Nieves returned in the 60-meter hurdles to take 16th with a PSAC qualifying time of 8.34 seconds, with freshman Danny Dinh close behind in 24th running 8.51 seconds. Darby, Nieves, and Moodie were joined by senior James Chandler in the 4×400-meter relay to take sixth with a time of 3:17.35, which is the fastest time in the PSAC this year, and is just shy of the NCAA Provisional time of 3:17.19.
Senior Jeremy Parsons and Sophomore John Marenkovic cruised to PSAC qualifying times in the 5000-meter run with Parsons leading the way with a time of 15:15.20 and Marenkovic in 15:25.06.
The Rock will compete one more time at the Edinboro Last Chance Meet before the PSAC Indoor Championships also held at Edinboro on February 24-25.
