Results
by Joel Zeigler, GoMessiah.com reporter
Haverford, PA - Messiah's track and field team joined numerous high-caliber Philadelphia area schools, including Division 1 institution Penn, at Haverford College for the talent-saturated Haverford Invitational.
The Falcons' pole vaulting prowess showed today, as freshman school record holder
Tim Moses won the men's event with a stellar vault of (15'5").
Rachel Robison reached a new indoor personal record with her winning height of 10'6" (3.2m) in the women's event.
Dane Cornelius set a college PR with his 12'6".
Messiah also saw great success in the high jump.
Aaron Powell placed second in the event in a 6'0" jump. The Falcons dominated the women's side, which was headlined by the one-two finish of
Marie Johnson and
Hadlee Coker, who both jumped 4'11.75". Rebecca Querfield garnered a sixth place finish at 4'6" (1.37m).
The sprints also went well for the Falcons. These successes included
Alex Yoder's third place finish in the 200 meter dash (23.67) and second place finish in the 400 (51.27).
Mark Engle placed fifth in the 60 meters with a 7.40, and he bested his time in the 200 from last week by four tenths of a second, running 24.05.
Liz Martin improved on last week's 200 by posting a time of 27.42.
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In the 60 meter hurdles,
Nicholas White managed a second place with his 8.95.
Liz Martin ran 9.85 in the event, and
Julie Heisey qualified for the MAC Championships with her time of 10.47
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There were also good performances in the long and triple jump. Sikha Eugene and
Marie Johnson earned MAC qualifications with respective long jumps of 14'11.25" (4.86m) and 15'0.75" (4.59m). Eugene and
Kaitlyn Hostetler both solidified qualifications in the triple jump with marks of 32'4.25" (9.86m) and 33'5.5" (10.2m).
Josiah Haws met the MAC standard in the long jump with a 19'2" (5.84m) effort. Haws and
Tim Hampton achieved a rare feat. "They finished within a centimeter of each other in the triple jump—no holding hands!" mused coach
Jason Brown. Their jumps were 39' (11.91m, 11.90m), good enough for third and fourth.
Messiah's middle and long distance camps continued their steady progression this week, with heat wins in the 800 meters by
Julie Heisey (2:27.90) and
Emily Senning (2:28.18). Jacqueline Young notably qualified for the MAC championships in the event as well (2:39.69).
Phil Headland led the Falcons in the men's 800 with his 2:02.91.
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The mile saw some stellar times for this time in the season for the likes of
Cameron Shirk (4:34),
Jared Schatz (4:37),
Nathaniel Pardoe (4:37) and
Tyler Sensenig (4:38). For the women,
Jenny Bender and
Alissa Rogers ran 5:32 and 5:39. In the 3000 meters,
Alex Faus and
Nathan Fleming each took time off their personal records, notching times of 9:09 and 9:16, respectively.
In the throws, junior
Trevor Stutzman finished second in the shot put with a throw of 50'6.75" (15.41m)
The Falcon's relay teams returned a week after their successes looking to improve, and gained some useful experience against tougher completion than before. The women's 4x400 ran a 4:22.55 and the men ran 3:40.28, highlighted by
Mark Engle's relay debut with an impressive split of 53 seconds
"The meet had a great quality, small feeling and we were able to work on some technical aspects of our events," coach
Dale Fogelsanger said. "It's great to score well at a meet with skilled Philadelphia teams."
Portions of Messiah's track team will return to action on Wednesday at the Ursinus Pentathlon meet and on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Bucknell University's Bison Classic.
