READING, Pa. - The Messiah Men's Track and Field team had an incredible meet at the Alvernia Winter Invitational in their second meet of the season and their first in over a month back from Winter Break. The Falcons performed strongly against other teams in the Middle Atlantic Conference as well as several Division II foes from around the state at the site of the MAC Indoor T&F Championships, preparing them very well for the Championships that will be held at the end of February. The Falcons had a very successful day in sum, with a total of four performances - two from the same athlete - that earned placements on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten List as well as an additional 11 MAC Qualifications.
 
The Falcons are next in action on Friday, Jan. 24, when they travel to Philadelphia, PA to compete at the Winter Invite at UPenn, hosted by Widner University.
 
On the Track
Action on the track began in an uncommon way for an early-season invitational with the 4x800 Meter Relay, in which Evan Sarkett, Kaleb Kabakjian, Nathan Kimmel, and John Condon turned in strong performances buoyed by the rare occurrence of running with fresh legs for the relay. The team ran a collective time of 8:05.63 despite some uncommon pacing employed at various points, good enough for seventh all-time on the Messiah Indoor Top Ten list. Sarkett opened the Falcons well with an even split of 2:01.2 completely on his own, while Kaleb Kabakjian demonstrated his excitement to be back on the track with a 55.1 opening 400 meters to his 800 meter leg. Kabakjian split the second half of his leg with a time of 68.2, culminating in a 2:03.3 split on the second leg. Nathan Kimmel ran a solid third leg to turn in a time of 2:03.6, while John Condon ran an incredible leg of 1:57.2 to close out the relay strongly all on his own with consistent splits. The Falcons' time of 8:05.63 gained them the win in the event by roughly 10 seconds, with improvements only expected to follow during the next six weeks.
 
The 5000 Meter Run followed after an exciting first relay, with three Falcons toeing the line in the day's longest event. John Bauman was the first to finish with a time of 16:42.80, while Ryan Klemick and Nathan Seibert followed closely behind with respective indoor personal record times of 16:49.79 and 16:53.03. 
 
John Steele led the Falcons in the 60 Meter Hurdles with a time of 9.07 in the preliminary round, qualifying him for a spot in the finals as well as for MACs. Will Xenakis finished with a time of 9.88, a new personal record in his second 60 Meter Hurdle race. Multi athletes Ben Reichenbach and Jed Colyer ran together alone in the final heat of the day, with the two turning in respective times of 10.77 and 11.25 in their first ever attempts at the event. Steele was the only Falcon to qualify for the finals but decided to not start in favor of competing in other events.
 
In the 60 Meter Dash, Joshua Karyea stood as the only Falcon in the race but ran an excellent time of 7.41 that stands as a significant personal record and leaves him just four-hundredths of a second off a placement on the Messiah All-Time Top Ten list. 
 
One of the most exciting races of the day took place in the Mile, where Kaleb Kabakjian finished third overall with a MAC-qualifying time of 4:27.10 after his unique race in the 4x800 Meter Relay not too long earlier in the meet. Kabakjian began the race in the very back and came through halfway cautiously in a split of roughly 2:17, working his way up steadily through the second half of the field. Kabakjian surged incredibly during the second half of the race, working his way up all the way to second place before being passed back into fourth at the start of the final stretch. Kabakjian fought back and battled all the way to the line with Widener's Thomas Flear, just outdipping his conference rival by 0.09 seconds and securing a third-place finish in his first individual race as a collegian. In the second heat, Nathan Kimmel also doubled back from the 4x800 Meter Relay with a strong finish in a time of 4:52.81, while Zeke Colyer finished shortly behind in a time of 4:54.77. 
 
The 400 Meter Dash was also an extremely exciting event, with Zion Buck finishing as the top Falcon in an incredible time of 53.22. Buck ran at the back of his heat for most of the race as teammate Adam Hostetler led the heat before sprinting incredibly around four athletes and taking the heat win convincingly and gapping all competitors. Adam Hostetler held on for second place in the heat with a time of 54.05, but his time was surpassed by Sean Baxter's MAC-qualifying time of 53.84 from the previous heat. Despite being placed in a very fast heat that caused him to be gapped from the beginning, Baxter ran very well on his own and even passed a competitor with a final surge in the home straight to turn in an excellent performance for the Falcons. 
 
The Falcons also benefited from a strong presence in the 800 Meter Run, with John Condon finishing as the top Falcon in third place overall with a MAC-qualifying time of 2:00.69. Condon began cautiously after his stellar performance in the 4x800 Meter Relay and was immediately gapped by several of his competitors, but he surged ahead strongly in the second half of the race to bridge the gap to the top two and nearly overtake a competitor into second place. Evan Sarkett followed Condon's surge and finished in fourth with a MAC-qualifying time of 2:02.66, allowing the Falcons to make up half of the top four spots. In a later heat, the Falcons had an incredible presence with Eli McClymont and Daniel Satariano going 1-2 with respective indoor personal record times of 2:06.44 and 2:06.93. Kyle Costello finished with a time of 2:09.20 in his collegiate debut in the 800 Meter Run, with Nathan Kopp finishing just behind with a time of 2:09.95. Caleb McInnes also finished with an indoor personal record while improving significantly on his collegiate debut from last month, ending up with a time of 2:16.80. Liam McGovern, one of Messiah's upperclassmen Multi athletes, also finished with a personal record time of 2:20.57. 
 
The 3000 Meter Run saw three Falcons toe the line, with Kyle Costello and Tyler Billet finishing with respective times of 9:32.48 and 9:36.91 to place fourth and fifth overall in the event. Josiah Carnwath also finished just half a second off his personal record in the event, turning in a time of 9:46.21. 
 
The 4x400 Meter Relay also provided one of the stellar highlights of the day, with the Falcons fielding two different teams in two different heats. The Falcons' "A Team", made up of Adam Hostetler, Gavin Dunkerton, Nate Kopp, and Sean Baxter, finished with a strong time of 3:38.05 behind Baxter's stellar anchor leg of 53.06. In the subsequent heat, the Falcons' "B Team," made up of Eli McClymont, Daniel Satariano, Will Xenakis, and Zeke Colyer battled to the line with Arcadia's "B Team" for the heat win. Buoyed by an excellent split of 53.66 by Xenakis, Colyer took the baton as anchor just ahead of Arcadia and held off his competitor for 350 meters until Arcadia's anchor pulled up alongside of and then ahead of Colyer. Colyer battled back in the closing meters and gave a massive dip at the line that resulted in him crashing to the track, but not before having earned the heat win by a margin of 0.06 seconds with a time of 3:42.01. 
 
In the Field
 
The High Jump was the opening event on the day, with Falcon newcomer and multi athlete Ben Reichenbach turning in a stellar performance in his specialty event. Reichenbach cleared a height of 1.86 meters (6' 1.25") on his first attempt before giving three great tries at 1.89 meters, a would-be personal record, easily qualifying him for MACs. Landon Kerr also qualified for MACs with an excellent clearance of 1.75 meters (5' 8.75"), with Jed Colyer clearing 1.65 meters (5' 5"), a new personal record.
 
Joshua Karyea was the top Falcon competitor in the Pole Vault, improving strongly on his last competition from December with a clearance at 3.70 meters (12' 1.5"), just shy of qualifying for MACs. Two multi athletes also competed in the vault, with Gavin Dunkerton finishing with a height of 3.40 meters (11' 1.75"). Liam McGovern set a personal record height in the pole vault with a clearance at 3.25 meters (10' 8"), surpassing his previous best by five centimeters. 
 
Following up his incredible performance in the 400 Meter Dash, Zion Buck set an incredible personal record in the Long Jump, surpassing his previous best from high school by over a foot with an incredible leap of 6.74 meters (22' 1.25"). Buck's distance placed him third in the competition overall and earned him a spot on the All-Time Indoor Top Ten list with the sixth best performance in school history. Behind Buck's stellar performance, Jacob Cramer made his season debut for the Falcons with a jump of 5.94 meters (19' 5.75), earning himself a MAC qualification with a single centimeter to spare. Liam McGovern and Gavin Dunkerton also participated in the event, jumping respective distances of 5.76 meters (18' 10.75") and 5.44 meters (17' 8.5"). 
 
Buck's amazing day had one more chapter by the time the Triple Jump came around, with Buck finishing with two strong MAC-qualifying jumps in the mid-13 meter range before jumping an unbelievable distance of 14.14m meters (46' 4.75") on his final attempt. Buck's jump places him fourth on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list and also placed him fourth on the day in the competition amongst a strong array of competition. Landon Kerr also jumped a MAC-qualifying distance of 12.30 meters, just surpassing his mark from December at F&M by a single centimeter.
 
Ted Lechthaler continued the incredible series of performances for the Falcons in the field by throwing a new personal best of 14.06 meters (46' 1.5") in the shot put, improving upon his own personal record and improving upon his placement on the Indoor All-Time Top Ten list, bringing him from fifth to fourth all-time. Nathan Bowman also registered a strong performance for the Falcons by qualifying for MACs with a throw of 12.02 meters (39' 5.25"), with freshman teammates Jake Holland (11.23 meters - 36' 10.25")) and Ben Reichenbach (11.11 meters - 36' 5.5") also submitting excellent performances, with the second standing as a personal best. Patrick Smith finished with a distance of 10.92 meters (35' 10"), while Anthony Russo rounded out the Falcons' efforts with an toss of 9.91 meters (32' 6.25").
 
Hoyt Lechthaler was the top representative for the Falcons in the weight throw, the final event of the day, finishing with a mark of 13.37 meters (43' 10.5"). Ted Lechthaler finished next with a distance of 11.38 meters (37' 4"), while Jake Holland was the final Falcon competitor with a distance of 10.55 meters (34' 7.25"). 

Up Next
After a series of stellar performances on both the track and in the field, the Falcons will anticipate with excitement and readiness their next competition hosted by Widener at the University of Pennsylvania's indoor track. The meet, held on Friday, Jan. 24th, will be hosted amongst very strong competition on a banked indoor track, providing the Falcons with an excellent opportunity to improve on their strong performances thus far with plenty of time left until the postseason races to follow the season.
 

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