Men's Track and Field Breaks Records at Spire
The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team broke school records and had multiple ECAC qualifiers in their meet at Spire on Saturday.
GENEVA, Oh. – The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team broke school records and had multiple ECAC qualifiers in their meet at Spire on Saturday.
Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion), Dylan Buffington (Brookville, PA/Brookville) and Matt McWilliams (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) all qualified for ECACs for the second week in a row. Obenrader threw a shot put distance of 15.30m.
McWilliams, Buffington and Josh Natalie (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy-Strong Vincent) all qualified for ECACs in the 800m. Buffington and McWilliams broke school records, placing second and third with times of 1:55.23 and 1:55.70 respectively.
Natalie finished fifth, breaking a school record with 1:57.24. Buffington now holds the record over the other two.
McWilliams also broke a school record in the 3000m. He finished ninth, with a time of 8:52.72.
Kevin Gardner (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) qualified for ECACs in the high jump with a height of 6'6", while Luke Patten (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex) qualified with a 15'1" pole vault.
The 4x400 relay of Buffington, Cody Cornell (Conneaut Lake, PA/Conneaut Lake), Greg Graf (South Park, PA/South Park) and Matthew Grafton (Worthington, PA/Kittanning) broke a school record finishing first with a time of 3:26.19.
Grafton also won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.75 and finished sixth in the 200m with a time of 23.11.
In the long jump, Marcus Haeseler (North East, PA/North East) took took fifth with a distance of 5.92m. Joseph Neff (North East, PA/North East) and Patten finished eighth and ninth with distances of 5.67m and 5.65m respectively.
The Lions return to Spire Friday and Saturday with another 10 a.m. start.