WESTMINSTER, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team placed fourth out of 22 teams in the Westminster Invitational Saturday with a team score of 46.
Grant Rodgers (Oil City, PA/Oil City) set a new Penn State Behrend school record in the 400m run with an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying mark of 48.96. He finished the race in fourth place, while Devin Ross (Shenango, PA/Shenango) and Nick Coleman (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) crossed the finish line at 50.80 and 50.84 for 11th and 13 place finishes, respectively.
The 4x400m relay, comprised of Rodgers, Greg Graf (South Park, PA/South Park), Colton Barger (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy), and Ross, qualified for the ECACs with a winning time of 3:21.97.
Matt Michael (Erie, PA/Iroquois) punched his ticket to the ECACs in the discus, throwing a personal-best distance of 39.59m for a 10th-place finish. He also took seventh in the shot put with an ECAC qualifying toss of 13.35m.
The 4x100m relay squad made up of Kurt Eberhardt (Gibsonia, PA/Hampton), Rodgers, Graf, and Ross ran an ECAC qualifying time of 43.32. They took sixth place.
In the pole vault event, Kevin Stebick (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf), Jack Georgetson (Aliquippa, PA/Hopewell), and Kyle Grimm (Beaver, PA/Beaver Area) all earned spots at the ECAC championships. Stebick led the charge with a seventh-place finish height of 4.26. Georgetson and Grimm both finished at a height of 3.96, where Georgetson took 10th and Grimm placed 13th.
Colby Tarr (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands) and Jeremy Spricher (Beaver Falls, PA/Riverside) also qualified for the ECACs in the 400m hurdles. Tarr took 11th place with a time of 58.57, while Spricher crossed the line at 58.82 for 14th.
In the 1500m run, Chris Drozynski (Stoneboro, PA/Lakeview) ran a winning time of 4:08.20. Zach Wortman (St. Mary's, PA/Elk County Catholic) and Timothy Wheeler (Albion, PA/Northwestern) took second and ninth in the 10000m run, respectively. Wortman ran a time of 33:36.12 while Wheeler came in at 35:57.42.
Jarrod Lipsey (Kersey, PA/St. Mary's Area) took ninth in the 800m run, crossing the finish line at 2:00.86.
In the high jump, Braeden Smith (Erie, PA/Seneca) earned third-place, leaping at a height of 1.95m.
The Lions return to the track to race Saturday at the Behrend Invitational scheduled to start at 10 a.m.