Place and McMahon Pace Gators

Feb 16, 2008

KENYON RESULTS (.pdf) | BALDWIN-WALLACE RESULTS (.pdf)

GAMBIER, Ohio – Five first-place finishes, and a 1-through-6 finish in the mile paced the Gators at the Kenyon College Invitational hosted in Gambier, Ohio. Senior Ryan Place (Meshoppen, Pa./Elk County Catholic) and junior Joe McMahon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) paced the team with a pair of first-place finishes, Place in the mile and 5,000 and McMahon in the long and triple jumps.

Place led five NCAC qualifying Gators in the mile, running a time that was less than a third of a second from his career best and the former school record, finishing the event in a time of 4:20.81, the second best time in the league this season. Zac Ross (Meadville, Pa./Meadville Area) (2nd, 4:29.25), Matt Lacombe (Highland Heights, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) (3rd, 4:30.78), Jeramie Parker (Middletown, Md./Middletown) (4th, 4:30.88) and Matthew Brush (Centereach, N.Y./Centereach) (4:31.64) each met the NCAC qualifying marks, while Andrew Mahone (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air), finished just off of the league-qualifying pace with a time of 4:33.95, placing sixth overall. Place followed up his mile run finish by taking first in the 5,000, qualifying for the league championships with a time of 15:28.65.

McMahon qualified for the league championships in both of his events, winning the long jump with a leap of 21-3.25, while topping the field in the triple jump with a leap of 44-11.0, a foot off of the NCAA Provisional qualifying mark, topping teammate Matt Yurky’s (Homer City, Pa./Homer-Center) distance of 42-0.75 in second place.

Yurky followed his runner-up finish in the triple jump by winning the 55-meter hurdles in a time of 8.12, while the trio of Peter Sotherland (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central), Cedric Gamble (Boalsburg, Pa./State College) and Erich Wittmer (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) finished second, third and fourth in the pole vault, clearing heights of 13-6.25, 13-0.25 and 13-0.25, respectively.

Chas Moore-Seymore (Buffalo, N.Y./St. Francis) placed third in the 55-meter dash, sprinting to a time of 6.77, a league qualifying mark, while placing fourth in the 200-meter dash, running the one-lap event in a time of 23.57. Garret Piispanen (Fruita, Colo./Fruita Monument) rounded out the top-four finishers for the Gators, running the 400-meter dash in a time of 52.86, taking fourth place overall.

Competing at Baldwin-Wallace, Frank Tupta (University Heights, Ohio/Hawken) placed fifth in the shot put with a toss of 47-8.0, a NCAC qualifying standard.

The Gators next take to the track on February 23 when they travel to Kent State in a final tune-up before the league championships on February 29 and March 1, hosted by Denison University.

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