ALBION, Mich.--Six first-place finishes led the Trine men's track and field team to its best-ever finish at MIAA Field Day, hosted by Albion College.
Thunder competitors earned the team 182.50 points to earn Trine a second-place finish in the conference championship meet. The Thunder had never finished higher than fourth in the MIAA since joining the conference in 2005. The second-place finish was a three-place improvement from the 2014 team's performance. Trine six first-place finishes included one field event, two relays and three sprints. The Thunder also had two performances that eclipsed a previous Field Day record.
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Dakota Bagwell (Kokomo, Ind./Western) had perhaps the most impressive performance of the day as he set the new MIAA Field Day record in the hammer throw. The senior threw a distance of 184 feet, 3 inches for a new conference record and school record. The performance puts Bagwell on the discussion for a National Championship appearance.
Sam Gilly (St. Joseph, Ill./St. Joseph-Ogden) eclipsed the previous meet record as well with a throw of 174 feet, 4 inches. The throw was a new personal-best as he finished second only to Bagwell. Gilly earned points in four events for the Thunder in the meet.
Tyler Bourdo (Plainwell, Mich./Delton-Kellogg) capped off his conference career as Trine's most decorated athlete in MIAA Field Day. Bourdo defended his title in the 400-meter dash to win the event for the third-straight time, becoming the first three-time MIAA champion in team history. Bourdo also won the 200-meter dash and was a part of the winning 4-x-100-meter relay and 4-x-400-meter relay.
The 4-x-100-relay championship team was made up of Bourdo, John Daniel (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll), Patrick Richardville (Leo, Ind./Leo) and John Harris-Scott (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Wiregrass Ranch). The quartet of runners came within .02 seconds of the MIAA Field Day record, finishing in 41.93 seconds.
Richardville also earned a gold-medal performance in the 100-meter dash and placed second in the 200-meter dash. Daniel added a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter, while Harris-Scott placed eighth. Daniel notched a fifth-place performance in the 200-meter as well.
Bourdo was joined on the championship 4-x-400-relay by Luke Fimreite (McCordsville, Ind./Mount Vernon), Zach Markley (Winamac, Ind./Winamac) and Jacob Leopold (Ottawa, Ohio/Ottawa-Glandorf). The performance gave the Thunder three-straight conference titles in the event. Bourdo and Fimreite became the first Trine duo to be a part of three-straight conference champion relay teams.
Gilly, Jessie Dowell (Remington, Ind./Tri Junior-Senior), Tyler Niehoff (Wheatfield, Ind./Kankakee Valley) and Andrew Bunting (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick) finished in the three-through-six spots in the discus to pick up key points for the Thunder. Niehoff picked up points in three events, while Dowell and Bunting added point-earning performances in two events.
Other notable performances on the track included Leopold's fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run and James Gregory's (Warsaw, Ind./Tippecanoe Valley) sixth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles.
Alex Hodges (Rochester Hills, Mich./Avondale) and Justin Dostal (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian) placed fifth and sixth respectively in the high jump.
To read more about Trine's performances in day one of Field Day, follow this link.
Field Day caps off the season for most of Trine's student-athletes. The Thunder will have several performers looking to wrap up National Championship appearances at last-chance meets in the next several weeks.
Trine will return the bulk of this roster next season as the team loses just three seniors.