ROCHESTER, NY – The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team opened their 2014 season in a big way at the Rochester Institute of Technology Tiger Invitational on Saturday as three players qualified for ECAC's in four different events.
Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion) qualified for ECAC's in the shot put with a distance of 14.41m. That effort was also good enough for a first-place overall finish in the event.
Malik Moffett-Pulliam (Cathedral Prep/Erie, PA) also qualified for ECAC's with a time of 7.10 in the 60 meter dash. He would again qualify in the high jump and break the school record with a height of 1.98m. The freshman also earned a fifth place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 13.18m.
Kevin Gardner (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) also qualified for ECAC's in the high jump with a distance of 1.93m.
In all, the Lions had three athletes card top-10 finishes in the shot put, with Anthony Bauccio (Monroeville, PA/Gateway) finishing fourth (13.13m) and Tony Antonucci (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) coming in eighth (12.44m).
In the pole vault, Luke Patten earned a second-place finish with a distance of 4.40m.
Behrend was also extremely successful on the track. In the 500 meter dash, Josh Natalie (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy-Strong Vincent) finished second with a time of 1:09:91, Kevin Lai (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) finished eighth at 1:11:61, and Andres Morales (Alajuela, Costa Rica/ICS) came in ninth with a time of 1:12:00.
Matt McWilliams (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Devin Beggs (Franklin, PA/Franklin) finished fourth and fifth in the 1000m run, with times of 2:38.25 and 2:39.47, respectively.
In the 60m hurdles, Matthew Grafton (Worthington, PA/Kittanning) finished tied for second with a time of 8.77. Grafton also ran seventh in the 200m dash with a time of 24.24
The Lions' team of Natalie, Grafton, Beggs, and McWilliams finished sixth in the 1600m relay with a time of 3:39.97. In the 800m race, the squad of Lai, Moffett, Morales, and Geoffrey Faltot (Mercer, PA/Mercer) came in second with a time of 1:35:39.
Faltot also came in 7th in the long jump, going 6.43m.
Freshman Brent Channer (East Stroudsburg, PA/East Stroudsburg-South) earned a strong fifth-place finish with a time of 53.52 in the 400m dash.
Denis Lydon (Plum,PA/Plum) finished ninth in the 3000m run with a time of 9:11.70.
The Lions will next compete at the Jan Spire Open in Geneva, Ohio on January 25.
