SELINSGROVE, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's track & field team captured its 10th consecutive and 11th Landmark Conference Indoor Championships in the last 12 years on Saturday by winning the 2019 meet hosted by Susquehanna University Saturday.
The men posted a 21-point victory over runner-up Elizabethtown College as the Greyhounds recorded 173 points to the Blue Jays 152 as both teams won six events.
"It was definitely tough meet for us," noted Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "We had some things that did not go according to script. The 800 didn't go quite like we wanted. We had Scott Goodwin got a hamstring injury in the middle of the meet. The thing about a track meet, is that you need everyone to step up. We had guys like Shane Mastro with enormous day in the throws. We had John Spirk really gutting in out with a tough run in the finals and Greg Jaindl had an awesome double. Across the board, we had athletes all contributing to make this a really great team effort even though things didn't go as swimmingly as we thought they would originally."
Senior John Spirk paced the Blue and Grey with championships in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.33 seconds and the 400-meter dash in 51.64 seconds, and Spirk was fourth in the 60-meter dash with a PR time of 7.34 seconds. Junior Greg Jaindl won the 5,000-meter run in a time of 15:45.46, and he took second in the 3,00-meter run by just one-tenth of a second in a time of 8:51.10.
Moravian also posted three titles in the field events with freshman Max Schuman winning the pole vault at a height of 3.95 meters (12-11.5) while senior Jon Anthony won the weight throw at personal best 15.58 meters (51-1.5) and sophomore Shane Mastro captured the shot put with a PR toss of 14.65 meters (48-0.75). Junior Ryan Harper was the runner-up in both throwing events with marks of 13.61 meters (44-8) in the shot put and 15.26 meters (50-0.75) in the weight throw while Mastro took third in the weight throw with a PR distance of 14.96 meters (49-1) and Anthony was eighth in the shot put at 12.23 meters (40-1.5).
Senior Hunter Gibson placed sixth in the weight throw at a PR of 14.05 meters (46-1.25) while senior Tyler Bergsma finished seventh in the weight throw at 13.53 meters (44-4.75) and fifth in the shot put with a mark of 12.70 meters (41-8). Sophomore Derek Scott was ninth in the weight throw at 12.39 meters (40-7.75). Senior Brian Stock finished as the runner-up in the long jump with a leap of 6.50 meters (21-4) while sophomore John Stires was third in the pole vault at a height of 3.65 meters (11-11.75).
Back on the track, Stock placed third in the 60-meter dash in PR of 7.34 seconds while freshman Taylor Porter McPherson was sixth in 7.52 seconds and junior Nicholas Cephas had a PR time of 7.58 seconds to take ninth in the preliminaries. Porter McPherson also finished third in the 400-meter dash in 52.75 seconds while junior Evan Lutz placed sixth in 56.08 seconds. Sophomore Sean McFarland finished third in the 200-meter dash in 23.71 seconds and was followed by Porter McPherson in fourth in 23.89 seconds and Lutz in a PR of 24.32 seconds. Cephas added a time of 9.21 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles to place sixth in the preliminaries while senior Woodrow Battle was eighth in the prelims in 9.48 seconds.
Junior Justin Beasley-Turner placed third in the mile run with a PR time of 4:28.84 while sophomore Peter Gingrich was fourth in a PR of 4:32.13, freshman Dominic DeRafelo finished fifth in 4:32.99, senior Devon Harris took seventh in 4:47.11 and junior Alex Tursi placed tenth in a time of 4:50.03. Junior Gavin Kemery finished fourth in the 5,000-meter run in a PR of 15:53.57 while freshman Richard Glennon took tenth in a PR of 16:51.68, and Kemery was also seventh in the 3,000-meter run in a PR time of 9:10.01 followed by DeRafelo in eighth at 9:13.90 and freshman Shane Houghton in tenth in a PR time of 9:16.49. Senior Aaron Hofmann was seventh in the 800-meter run in 2:01.83 while Gingrich finished eighth at 2:02.65 and freshman Brad Clemson took tenth in 2:05.54.
In the relay races, the 4x200-meter squad of McFarland, Lutz, Stock and Porter McPherson finished second in 1:34.06 while the 4x400-meter team of Porter McPherson, Lutz, Beasley-Turner and Gingrigh was second in 3:33.20 to finish the meet. Moravian's distance medley relay team of Clemson, freshman Michael Lerch, junior Devon Fogel and sophomore Benjamin Smith took fourth in a time of 11:07.67.
Moravian is slated to return to action in the first All Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York on March 1-2 in the final chance to qualify for the 2019 NCAA Division III National Championships to be held in Boston, Massachusetts on March 8-9.
