Wortman Breaks School Record at Spire

GENEVA, Oh. – The Penn State Behrend men's track and field team traveled to SPIRE for the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.

Freshman Zach Wortman (St. Mary's, PA/Elk County Catholic) took fifth place and set a new school record with a time of 15:43.97 in the 5,000-meter run, breaking the six-year old program record by five seconds.

Dylan Buffington (Brookville, PA/Brookville) earned an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying mark with a 4:21.08 time and third place finish in the one mile run.

Nicholas Porter (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) and John LaRoche (Union City, PA/Seneca) each earned Top five finishes in the shot put throw. Porter threw a distance of 10.86m for third place, and LaRoche placed fifth with a 10.14m throw.

In the 60m hurdles, Colby Tarr (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands) finished in fourth place with a final time of 8.92 seconds, while in Kurt Eberhardt (Gibsonia, PA/Hampton) took sixth place with a time of 7:34 in the 60m dash.

Braeden Smith (Erie, PA/Seneca) tied for sixth place in the high jump, leaping at a height of 1.81m.

In the weight throw, Tony Antonucci (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) placed sixth with a final toss of 14.18m.

Grant Rodgers (Oil City, PA/Oil City) finished in ninth over in the long jump with a final distance of 6.01m. Rodgers continued his day to compete in the 200m dash where he crossed the finish at 23.13.

Greg Graf (South Park, PA/South Park) and Devin Ross (Shenango, PA/Shenango) both finished in the Top 10 in the 400m dash. Graf placed seventh with a time of 51.68 while Ross came in eighth at a time of 51:88.

Behrend's 4x400m 'A' and 'B' squads finished 11^th and 12^th, respectively, with times of 3:43.73 and 3:45.09. In the distance medley, PSU-Behrend 'A', comprised of Michael Cross (Fairview, PA/Fairview), Christ Drozynski (Stoneboro, PA/Lakeview), Buffington, and Graf, placed fourth at a time of 11:15.71.

In the pole vault, both Kyle Grimm (Beaver, PA/Beaver Area) and Jack Georgetson (Aliquippa, PA/Hopewell) finished in eighth place with a final height of 4.13m.

The Lions travel back to Spire next Friday and Saturday. The meet begins at 7 p.m.