TOWSON, Md. --- The 2017-18 Moravian College men's indoor track and field team has been selected first overall in the Landmark Conference preseason poll as chosen by the Landmark coaches.
The squad returns 32 competitors from last year's Landmark Conference Championship squad as well as adding 14 new student-athletes. The Hounds received a total of 60 points, which was 14 more than the next closest team and six first-place votes. Moravian has won eight straight Landmark Conference Indoor Championships and nine of the first ten Landmark Conference titles.
Seventh-year Head Coach Jesse Baumann has a veteran group of returners led by six returning All-Conference student-athletes. Junior hurdler John Spirk looks to win the 60-meter hurdles for the third time this year while junior Scott Goodwin hopes to defend his title in the pole vault. The Hounds also return seniors Mike Kopach and Andrew Mitchell, junior Chris Antoine and sophomore Roland Cash, who all garnered All-Conference accolades in relay races last February.
"Despite some key losses to graduation, we have some really nice additions to the team," noted Baumann. "We added a lot of young promising depth in the horizontal jumps, Zion Howard tested with some incredible numbers in the short sprints last week and could really help us with the loss of Cory Taggert. Eric Morton and Spirk really took their off seasons seriously and will be huge anchors for our sprints and hurdles, and this is by far the most excited I've been about our distance crew in my time here. Ryan Harper, Tyler Bergsma and the rest of the throwers really committed themselves this offseason so I feel the team is focused, approached the offseason the way they need to, and are ready for a special year. As with the women, our focus this year isn't just conferences, but making an impact at NCAAs. Goodwin is among the athletes on our team that has the ability to make that next leap, so we're preparing a lot of our athletes with the mindset that Alabama in March needs to be one of their objectives this season."
The Greyhounds are scheduled to begin the season at Lehigh University Opener on Friday, December 1.
To view the full 2017-18 Landmark Conference Men's Indoor Track & Field Preseason Poll, http://www.landmarkconference.org/sports/track/2017-18/releases/11212017mtrackpreseason.
