CHESTER, Pa. – The men's track and field team closed out the 2021 MAC Track and Field Championships with 97 team points, good for a fifth-place finish.
Brody Beiler shined for the Falcons this weekend, winning the 1500m and 5,000m while taking second and third, respectively, in the 10,000m and 3000m steeplechase to earn the men's Track Athlete of the Year award. In addition,
Josiah Zehr claimed a first-place finish in the pole vault with a winning height of 15' 0.25", placing fourth all-time in Messiah men's track and field history.
How It Happened
As mentioned,
Brody Beiler shined for the Falcons this weekend. Beiler ran an electric 1,500m, finishing in first with a time of 3:58.69. Beiler got out to an early lead in the first two laps but found himself a bit boxed in on lap three. Entering the last lap, Beiler remained patient and waiting until there were 300m left in the race to turn on the jets. Beiler clocked a 56.91 last 400m to kick his way to a gold medal, running the fastest last lap of any competitor by nearly a full second.
Logan Horst also fought his way through the field in the 1500m, running a personal best time of 4:02.59 to take fifth.
The Beiler show wasn't over there as he secured gold in the 5,000m with a time of 15:10.56, beating Franklin Livolsi from Widener by 2.34 seconds. Beiler, pacing himself in his fourth event of the weekend, waited for the last 500 meters to use his kick. Bursting by Livolsi, Beiler crossed the line for his fourth medal of the championship meet.
Logan Horst took seventh in the event, running antoher personal best time, coming through the line in 15:24.01.
In the 110m hurdles,
Andrew Schott (15.77s) and
Aedan Wilkinson (16.88s) took sixth and eighth, respectively.
Derek Heisey was the lone Falcon in the 400m hurdles, running through the line in 55.90s to finish in fourth place and a new personal best. Heisey was the leadoff leg of the 4x400m relay, handing off to Wilkinson,
Chad Long, and
Ryan Thurber who combined for a time of 3:30.56 to take seventh place.
In the pole vault,
Josiah Zehr was crowned the MAC Champ after clearing 4.58m on his second attempt to break into the 15ft club. Zehr was perfect all the way through 4.44m before cleared personal best heights 4.54m and 4.58m on second attempts to earn his first-ever MAC Championship.
In the triple jump,
Brendan Provan jumped 13.65m into a slight headwind (-.4) to earn second place. Provan was also the anchor of the 4x100m relay team composed of Zach Mayro,
Joshua Horst, and
Andrew Schott. The crew combined for a time of 43.83 seconds with Provan storming down the home stretch, after great efforts from Mayro, Horst, and Schott, passing DeSales and Alvernia to help his team earn the bronze medal.
On the day, the Falcons earned a total of four individual medals and one relay medal to close out the conference championship competition. Messiah continues a streak of recording at least a top-three finish in the conference championship meet, earning a top-three finish for the eighth time in the past nine MAC Outdoor Championships.
