Philadelphia, PA. - The Messiah Men's Track and Field Team competed on both Friday and Saturday at the Widener Winter Invite, a selective meet with difficult entry standards and lots of strong Division II and III competition from the Metro and Mid-Atlantic Regions. The running and throwing events on the schedule were hosted on Friday night at the brand-new indoor track facility in the Ott Center at the University of Pennsylvania, providing the Falcons with an excellent opportunity to compete against strong competition on a fast, banked indoor track. Meanwhile, the throwing events were held at Widener's indoor track facility the next day. The Falcons made the most of the trip into the city, running a series of quick times and submitting a number of strong field event performances. Across the weekend, the Falcons registered 8 new MAC Qualifications and 5 Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list performances behind an especially strong performance in the throws.
 
On the Track
Action on the track began with the 5000m, where two Falcons faced off against one another in terms of their last lap and finishing time despite running very different races. Ryan Klemick and Tyler Billet finished just a single hundredth of a second apart after an intense home-straight duel, with Klemick getting the nod with a lifetime personal best time of 16:31.73 ahead of Billet, who finished with a season-best time of 16:31.74. Both Falcons finished narrowly behind the MAC Qualifying time in the 5000m, which stands at 16:29 on a flat track, but both ran incredible races in their own unique racing style. Billet went out very strongly, splitting roughly 8:07 through halfway, while Klemick went out cautiously and picked up steam as the race went on, coming through halfway in roughly 8:20 and closing the gap to Billet during the final stages of the race. Both Falcons' performances stand as very strong efforts for them, indicating further improvements in future races.
 
The 60m hurdles was the next event with Falcon competitors, with Drew Lebo making his collegiate debut for the Falcons alongside multi athlete Gavin Dunkerton. Lebo finished with a MAC Qualifying time of 9.25, while Dunkerton crossed the line with a season best and MAC Qualifying time of 9.56 in an excellent run for both racers.
 
In the Mile, Kaleb Kabakjian led a trio of Falcons from the second heat with another excellent race, following up his excellent finish from last week's Alvernia Winter Invite. Kabakjian began in the back of his heat before moving up very well throughout the field again, taking the lead on the penultimate lap behind an excellent negative split in which the two halves of his race were split 2:16 / 2:10. Kabakjian held off a strong surge from a competitor on the final lap and in the final straight, being passed briefly before responding and taking the heat win by a margin of 0.03 seconds. Kabakjian's time of 4:26.52 stands as a narrow season best, with further improvements sure to follow. Kyle Costello was the second Falcon to finish in the event, making two Falcons under 4:30 behind Costello's MAC-qualifying 4:29.33 clocking. Costello ran a very even race, coming through halfway in 2:14 before finishing with a 2:15 second half, running every single one of his laps in either 33 or 34 seconds. Daniel Satariano rounded out the Falcons' efforts in the event with the only personal best of the three, finishing with a time of 4:45.28 for a full Mile to surpass and surpassing both his 4:44.27 1600m indoor personal record as well as his 4:43.77 1600m outdoor personal record. Satariano ran a strong race with a very strong close, running his last lap in a time of 32 seconds to secure a personal record time.
 
The Falcons' sole representative in the Mile was Sean Baxter, who ran an excellent indoor personal record time of 52.83 behind a very strong race in which Baxter had a particularly strong finishing straight to pass a competitor in the final 50m. The race comes as another episode in Baxter's long series of strong improvements in indoor track races dating back to last season, with more surely to follow as the season continues on.
 
The 800m was unquestionably a highlight on the day for the Falcons, with John Condon and Evan Sarkett running extremely quick respective times of 1:56.72 and 1:57.21 to take second and fourth overall in the event. Condon's time of 1:56.72 stands as a narrow improvement on his previous indoor personal record time of 1:56.75, thereby updating his own performance in 8th place on the Messiah Indoor All-Time Top Ten list. Sarkett's time stands as a strong season-best improvement after a 2:02 clocking from last week, standing as his second-fastest time ever. Particularly notable was the fact that both runners negative split their races, with both opening up in a 59 second first 400m before closing in a 57 and 58 second lap respectively. Nathan Kimmel also raced in the 800m for the Falcons, finishing with a 2:02.82 clocking, a time that might fall just short of the 2:03.90 MAC standard after the conversion from banked to flat track is applied. Regardless, Kimmel's time stands as a strong season-best performance with a MAC qualification seeming likely in the future.
 
Louka Fetter was the Falcons' only racer in the 3000m in his first indoor track race in almost two years as well as his first this season due to dealing with injury. Fetter ran a very strong race, running the same pace as his 9:00 seed time with a 3:00 first kilometer while sitting around halfway in the pack before moving up into the top third of the field with a 2:57 third kilometer. Fetter's final kilometer was remarkable, as he followed a move made by another racer to catch an early-race breakaway up front and then took the lead with 500 meters to go. Fetter closed his race with a 1:02 final 400m and 29.9 final 200m to end up with a MAC-qualifying time of 8:45.02, significantly surpassing expectations and making him the fastest MAC competitor in the field today despite racing from the slow heat. Fetter's performance today signals excellent things to follow if an injury-free season progression is made possible, but stands as an amazing run in its own right regardless of anything else that might happen to follow.
 
In the 4x400m relay, the Falcons ended with an incredible performance, running their fastest time in the mile relay in the last 3 seasons of indoor track by a margin of over 3 seconds, with each member of the Falcons' team running incredibly consistent splits of 52 seconds. John Condon led the team off with a stellar 52.2 split from a standing start, with Sean Baxter running a lifetime best indoor relay split of 52.7 on the second leg. Both the Falcons' third and anchor legs, run by Adam Hostetler and Will Xenakis, finished with splits of 52.5, also a career best for both runners. The Falcons' collective efforts resulted in a very strong time that places them fifth on the Messiah Indoor All-Time Top Ten list, the first new entry on that list since eight seasons ago.
 
In The Field
Field events on Friday night began with the jumps, with the high jump taking place first. Ben Reichenbach was the top Falcon of a Messiah duo made up of multi athletes, jumping a height of 1.78m (5' 10"). Gavin Dunkerton also had an incredible performance, ending up with the same height of 1.78m on the night in what stands as a season best and MAC qualifying performance as well as his third highest jump ever. Dunkerton cleared 1.78m, the opening height in a very competitive meet, on his third attempt, finishing just behind Reichenbach's first-time clearance at the same height.
 
Drew Lebo and Joshua Karyea both competed for the Falcons in the pole vault, with both athletes taking strong attempts at the very difficult opening height of 3.80m (12' 5.5"). Both Falcons will look for clearances in their next competition.
 
The Falcons also had two compete in the men's triple jump, with Jacob Cramer and Landon Kerr both registering marks on the day in the event. Cramer finished as the better of the two, jumping a season-best and MAC qualifying distance of 12.53m. Landon Kerr finished close behind with a mark of 12.14m.
 
In the throws, Ted Lechthaler led the Falcons in the shot put with a strong performance of 13.57m (44' 6.25"), about half a meter off his personal record distance from last week's competition. Not far behind, freshman Nathan Bowman finished with a personal record distance of 12.47m (40' 11") and just sneaking into the Messiah Indoor All-Time Top Ten list in 10th, eclipsing the old record mark of 12.34m (40' 6"). Fellow freshman Jake Holland also had a great day in the shot put, finishing with a personal record distance of 11.89m (39' 0.25") to just qualify for MACs. Patrick Smith and Anthony Russo also competed in the shot put, finishing with respective distances of 11.04m (36' 2.75") and 10.77m (35' 4"). 
 
Another highlight on the day took place in the weight throw, where Hoyt Lechthaler surpassed his previous personal best and own 2nd-best mark on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list with a distance of 15.30m (50' 2.5"), his first time beating the 50 foot mark in the event. Lechthaler updated his own Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list 2nd-place mark with his performance, also finishing a very strong third overall in the event amongst very good competition. Ted Lechthaler also performed excellently in the event, throwing the weight a distance of 12.19m (40' 0"), a personal record for the sophomore that improves his placement on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list from 10th to 9th. Jake Holland made the Falcons' performance in the weight throw a perfect three for three on personal records, finishing with a mark of 11.51m (37' 9.25") that qualifies him for MACs. 
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will return to action the following weekend, competing on Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st at Bucknell University for the Bison Open & Multi. After a weekend of excellent competition at UPenn, the Falcons will have more of the same next weekend against what promises to be a very strong field in many events at Bucknell, another meet with entry standards that make entry into the meet fairly difficult for many Falcons. The Falcons will look to improve on their efforts from this weekend's competition with another week of training, with just about a month left until the indoor season's culmination. 

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