ALLIANCE, Oh. - The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team earned nine top five finishes including a victory in the 4,000m distance medley relay Saturday at the Mount Union Invitational.
The quartet of Dylan Buffington, (Brookville, PA/Brookville) Devin Beggs, (Franklin, PA/Franklin) Matthew Grafton (Worthington, PA/Kittanning) and Josh Natalie (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy-Strong Vincent) earned the victory in the 4,000m DMR posting a time of 10:45.60. The squad was victorious by over one second.
The day started off with three strong performances from Cody Cornell, (Conneaut Lake, PA/Conneaut Lake) Ian Griffith (Murrysville, PA/Franklin Regional) and Aaron Peters (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) in the 3000m run. Cornell led the pack placing in 11th place with a time of 9:25.79. Griffith and Peters came in at 16th and 18th posting times of 9:42.95 and 9:57.94, respectively.
In the second event of the day Luke Aaron, (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) Joseph Neff, (North East, PA/North East) Kevin Gardner (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Luke Patten (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex) pushed across a fourth place finish in the 800m relay. The squad put together a time of 1:35.16.
Cornell also had a strong showing in the 500m dash where he placed seventh tallying a time of 1:11.72. In the same event freshman Greg Graf (South Park, PA/South Park) led the Lions with a fourth place finish. Graf carded a time of 1:10.49. Coming in behind Cornell, Jeromee Geibel (Butler, PA/Butler) notched an eighth place finish clocking in just .09 second behind his teammate. Phil Martone (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst Prep) finished on the heels of Geibel in ninth place with a time of 1:12.12.
After earning the victory in the DMR earlier in the day, Grafton followed up by earning a top five finish in the 60m hurdles coming in fifth. Grafton lunged for a time of 8.80.
The 1,000 meter run saw Buffington, Beggs and Michael Smolinski (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) all finish in the top six. Buffington led the Lions with a second place finish clocking in at 2:35.58. Beggs came in fourth finishing with a time 2:37.58. Finishing sixth, Smolinski posted a 2:46.08
Alan Yocca (Plum, PA/Plum) took second place in the 5,000m run. The freshman had an impressive performance finishing with a time of 16:02.29.
Throwing the weight 12.79m, Tony Antonucci (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) took 18th place in the weight throw competition.
Patten led Behrend in the pole vault competition taking a third place finish. He boosted 4.61m. Aaron finished eighth with 4.31m and Stephen Hagg (North Washington, PA/Moniteau) finished eighth with 4.01m.
In the high jump, Gardner took third place jumping 1.93 meters. Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion) provided a sixth place finish in the shotput with a hurl of 14.71m.
The Lions hit the road once again next Saturday traveling to the Tiffin Invitational. The event is set to start at 10 a.m.
