GRANTHAM, PA. - The Messiah Men's Track & Field team competed today at the Middle Atlantic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, completing Day One of Three in the culminating meet for the team's outdoor season with two days of action on Friday and Saturday to follow. After three finals were held on Thursday evening, the Falcons earned seven team points to slot into eighth out of 16 teams competing this weekend at a home MACs for Messiah athletes held at Douglas K. Miller Track and Starry Athletic Complex.
The 4x800 Meter Relay final saw the first Falcon medals of the long weekend, with the team of
Evan Sarkett,
Bradley Kreider,
Kaleb Kabakjian, and
Sean Baxter finishing in third with a time of 7:50.70 that sits less than a second outside of an all-time top ten performance. Sarkett led the Falcons' relay off with a first split of 1:58.14 after a quick finish to put the Falcons in first, while
Bradley Kreider split a time of 1:59.63 on the second lead after doing much of the leading work into the wind to hand the Falcons off into third. A fantastic-team leading leg from
Kaleb Kabakjian brought the Falcons back up into first with a 1:56.30 split with one leg to go, with
Sean Baxter taking the baton with the lead and splitting a 1:56.65 while leading into the wind until the finishing straight. Baxter brought the Falcons home in third with a comfortable gap back to the fourth team to earn six team points.
The Falcons also managed to steal a point in the 10000 Meter Run thanks to the efforts of
Ryan Klemick, who was seeded 11th but managed to finish in eighth place with a new personal record time of 33:19.92. Klemick ran a steady race with a number of athletes who were also vying for a scoring position in the top eight before finishing very quickly with a final lap of 1:08.75 in order to secure the final podium position in eighth.
In the field, the Hammer was the only final contested on Thursday.
Ted Lechthaler was the top Falcon in the field in 21st place with a furthest throw of 39.14 meters (128' 5").
Gamaliel Perde also contested the Hammer, finishing with a top throw of 36.16 meters (118' 8") that sits just several inches adrift of his personal record. Perde finished in 28th place overall.
The first five events of the Decathlon were also contested on Day One, a competition that featured three Falcons. Through the halfway point of the competition,
Liam McGovern was the highest placed Falcon in fourth place with a total of 2969 points, followed quickly by
Jed Colyer's Day One total of 2910 points that places him sixth.
Ben Reichenbach, who was unable to start in the final event of Day One, occupied the competition lead through four events but finished with a Day One total of 2645 points after tallying just four events.
McGovern's Day One total of 2969 points stands just shy of his personal best through the first five events. McGovern's competition began with a 100 Meter Dash clocking of 11.92, just a few hundredths off of his personal record, with a 5.92 meter Long Jump performance following that sits slightly below his average performance in the Decathlon. McGovern's Shot Put of 11.42 meters was followed by a solid High Jump clearance at 1.75 meters before he concluded his day with a 55.54 400 Meter Dash clocking to slot into fourth overall.
Jed Colyer's Day One total of 2910 points stands as a personal record total through five events, bolstered by his sizable personal best of 11.68 in the 100 Meter Dash to open the competition. Colyer submitted a distance of 5.82 meters in the Long Jump and 10.68 meters in the Shot Put, both near his competition average, before registering his second personal best of the day with a 1.69 meters (5' 6.5") clearance at High Jump. Colyer concluded his day with a 400 Meter Dash clocking of 55.38, just shy of his best.
Reichenbach began his competition with very strong results through the first four events, clocking a time of 11.70 in the 100 Meter Dash before setting slight personal records in both the Long Jump (5.99 meters) and Shot Put (12.06 meters). Reichenbach also finished with a strong High Jump clearance at 1.93 meters (6' 4") to move into the competition lead but was unable to start in the 400 Meter Dash at the end of Day One.
Be sure to tune into the second and third days of action on Friday and Saturday at
gomacsports.tv as the Falcons continue to contest the 2026 Outdoor MAC Championships over the next two days!
