ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team won their second meet in a row, finishing first out of nine teams with 309.5 points on their home track Saturday at the Behrend Invitational.
There were eight individual Lions and one relay team that captured first place finishes on their home turf.
Matt McWilliams (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) paced the 800 with a win in a time of 1:52.90. Separated by just over three seconds, Josh Natalie (Erie, PA/Strong Vincent), Dylan Buffington (Brookville, PA/Brookville) and Cody Cornell (Conneaut Lake, PA/Conneaut Lake) took second, third and fourth respectively behind McWilliams.
Natalie posted a 1:53.09, Buffington ran a 1:55.74 and Cornell sprinted the race in 1:56.08. All racing in the same heat, the push to beat one another at the finish made for an exciting race.
Natalie then won the 5000m with a time of 15:49.08. Matthew Grafton (Worthington, PA/Kittanning) won the 110m hurdles in a time of 15.84, just ahead of Joshua Burns (St. Mary's, PA/St. Mary's Area), Colby Tarr (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands) and Marcus Haelser (North East, PA/North East) who took second, third and fourth respectively. They posted times of 16.01, 16.29 and 17.56.
Aaron Peters (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Ian Griffith (Murrysville, PA/Franklin Regional) had a one-two finish in the 3000m steeplechase, psoting times of 10:20.34 and 10:24.98 respectively.
They 4x100 relay team of Joseph Neff (North East, PA/North East), Kevin Gardner (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf), Luke Patten (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex) and Grafton also placed first. They combined to post a 43.66 and beat Franciscan by three seconds.
In field events, Gardner, Patten, Ryan Horstman (Butler, PA/Butler) and Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion) all won events.
Gardner won the high jump, leaping 1.94m and Patten won the pole vault, raising 4.65m to clear the bar. Horstman then won the triple jump at a distance of 13.13m.
Obenrader won three separate events Saturday. He won the shot put with a 15.59m mark, the discus with a 48.08m throw and the javelin with a 54.91m heave.
Behrend returns to the track on Saturday, May 7 to compete in the Colonia States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championships.
