Zack Duda accrued two first-place finishes to lead The Rock at last Saturday’s Youngstown State University (YSU) Mid-Major Invitational.
Gavin Thomas and Zach Gose joined Duda with first places of their own, each with one to their name at the invite.
Duda’s victories came in the men’s 1000m heptathlon and heptathlon high jump where he recorded a time of 2:51.44 and a height of 1.85m. The graduate student hailing from Seneca Valley High School is an eight-time Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship qualifier.
Thomas, also a Seneca Valley graduate, tallied his win in the men’s heptathlon pole vault with a height of 3.95m.
Gose topped the leaderboard of the men’s weight throw, logging a 16.84m throw. The throw marked his best as a collegiate athlete and was a PSAC auto mark. Gose also tallied a PSAC mark with his 10th place, 14.32m shot put.
Joshua Rohland brought The White and Green another PSAC mark in the weight throw with his ninth place, 14.78m throw.
The seeded pole vault was an event of great success for SRU. Three rock athletes, Drew Layton, Dan Hyatt and Brandon Schneider, achieved NCAA provisional marks with a fourth, Andy Huynh, earning a PSAC auto mark.
Matthew Crow, a recent PSAC Athlete of the Week award winner, had another good day on the hurdles. The sophomore had an 8.28 time good for third place and a PSAC auto mark. Brenden Lewis, a senior, finished not too far behind him at 8.46, also earning a PSAC mark.
Crow was joined by Kadin Johnson, Jacob Thompson and Kyle Rauchut for the 4×400-meter relay where The Rock’s time of 3:18.27 was good for third place.
Slippery Rock men’s track and field will now move on to the SPIRE Institute’s SPIRE Indoor Games at Geneva, Ohio this Saturday with one more try to add PSAC Championship qualifiers.
