Final Results
With Caleb McGaughran, GoMessiah.com reporter
Lexington, VA - The Falcons kicked off their outdoor season this weekend with a significant number of outstanding individual performances at Washington and Lee University's Track and Field Carnival.
Among the most significant highlights of the weekend were sophomores
Fred Fulton's and
Trevor Stutzman's domination of the men's throwing events. Fulton placed first in both the shot put and discus throwing 17.27m (56' 8”) in the shot and 46.87m (153' 9”) in the discus. Stutzman also did very well over the two-day meet, placing second in the shot put at 15.35m (50' 4.5”) and fourth in the discus at 44.31m (145' 4”).
In other news for the throwers, sophomore
Celtson Toote competed for the first time in the Javelin throw at a collegiate meet, qualifying for MAC's with a throw of 46.27m (151' 10”).
The first night of the meet overflowed with personal bests for many of the teams' distance runners in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races. In the men's 5,000 meter race, five athletes achieved new personal records. Freshman
Jared Schatz raced in the second-fastest heat of meet, running an outdoor MAC qualifying time of 16:15.00 Four other Messiah men also set new personal records, including freshmen
Nathan Fleming (16:42.41) and
Ryan Laird (16:51.04) as well as sophomore
Jeremy Diehl (17:31.93).
In the women's 5,000 meter both senior
Brenda Flaherty and freshman
Tasha Becker had excellent races. Flaherty placed tenth overall among all competitors with a time of 18:56.93. Becker placed seventeenth overall, setting a substantial personal record of 19:12.52.
Four Messiah athletes ran in the 10,000 meter run, all of them achieving qualifying times for the MAC Championship. Sophomore
Alyssa Doll competed for the women running a personal record of 43:14.60 while freshman
Susannah Marshall ran 44:56.71. On the men's side, freshmen
John Ausel and Tyler Sensing not only qualified, but ran significantly good times placing fifth and seventh respectively at 32:43.97 and 33:20.21.
In addition, sophomore
Joel Zeigler ran a good race in the men's 3,000 meter steeple chase, running a personal best of 11:09.97. Junior
Victoria Hepp also raced well in the women's steeple chase, finishing at 12:55.13.
Among the other highlights for Friday's competition was senior
Colin Reisler's performance in the men's pole vault. Reisler placed fifth in jumps for the A section of the men's pole vault at 4.4m.
On Saturday, Junior
Liz Martin performed well in the women's 100m hurdles, placing sixth overall at 15.64 seconds. Sophomore
Laura Castilow also had a good day in the hurdles, placing first in her heat and fifteenth overall at 16.92 seconds.
For the men, sophomore
Nicholas White won the second heat in the men's 110m hurdles, placing third overall in the meet at 15.77 seconds.
Messiah's men and women also raced very well in the 800 meter run on Saturday. Senior
Aaron Reynolds ran a personal record in the men's race, finishing third overall at 1:53.89. Sophomore Jonphillip McGill also raced well, placing fifth in his heat at 1:59.71.
For the women, freshman
Emily Senning ran very well, placing eight in the second heat and eighteenth overall with a time of 2:25.71. Freshman
Jacquelyn Young also ran well, finishing second in the fourth heat with a time of 2:30.74.
In the field events, senior
Rachel Bjorkman performed very well in the women's high jump. Bjorkman made a three-way tie in the event for eighth place with a jump of 1.47m (4' 9.75”).
Finally, the Falcons finished off the day with an incredible first place finish in the men's 4x800 meter relay. Freshman
Christopher Scheib led the race for the men, followed by sophomore
Jonphilip McGill and freshman
Cameron Shirk. McGill ran his leg extremely well, giving the relay team a strong lead ahead of their competitors. Finally, senior
Aaron Reynolds anchored the race, leading the men's team to an incredible finish of 8:00.05.
This weekend's meet was a great start for the Falcons as they begin their outdoor season of track and field. It will be exciting for the team to see where they can go from this point in their performance as individuals and as a team as they look ahead to the conference championship in May. The Falcons will return to action next week at Widener University for another two-day meet.
