MARION, Ind.-- The Trine men's track and field team notched three first-place finishes in the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational, held Saturday at Indiana Wesleyan's Indoor Sports Complex.
Sam Gilly (St. Joseph, Ill./St. Joseph-Ogden) paced the Thunder in field events, winning the weight throw with a toss off 55 feet, 8.5 inches. Gilly has started the season in strong fashion with top-three finishes in every event thus far. The senior set the school-record in the weight throw in the first meet of the season and has been within three feet of that distance in each of the last two official meets. Gilly's top throw this season is the fourth-best in NCAA Division III this year.
Jacob Leopold (Ottawa, Ohio/Ottawa-Glandorf) accounted for Trine's other individual first-place finish on the day. The junior ran a season-best time of time of 1:56.74 to win the 800-meter run. The time was just shy of his own school record. At the time of writing, Leopold's time today ranks sixth in the nation this year in Division III.
The winning 4-x-400-relay team was made up of Leopold, Zach Markley (Winamac, Ind./Winamac), Jasper Bassett (Auburn, Ind./DeKalb) and Patrick Richardville (Leo, Ind./Leo). The quartet of runners ran a time of 3:30.28 to win the event by 11 seconds.
Markley, Bassett and Richardville also teamed up with Will Collins (Marion, Ind./Marion) to place second in the 4-x-200-meter relay. The team's time came in at 1:36.41 seconds as they finished just .02 seconds out of first place.
Markley and Bassett also placed second and third respectively in the 400-meter run. Markley's time of 50.84 seconds was a new personal-best.
Michael Becker (Wauseon, Ohio/Wauseon) paced Trine's distance performers with a second-place finish in the 3000-meter run. The senior's time of 8:52 marked a 25-second improvement from his first performance on the year and set a new personal-record. Aaron Mast (Ligonier, Ind./West Noble) and Robert Duke (Greentown, Ind./Eastern) placed third and fourth in the event.
Courtney Mitchell (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Leurs) led the performance in field events elsewhere. The senior placed third in the shot put with a throw of 46 feet, 4.75 inches.
Freshman Trey Waagen (Horton, Mich./Hanover-Horton) added a fourth-place performance in the pole vault. Waagen's vault of 13 feet, 9.25 inches topped his previous-high by nine inches. Mitchell Martin (Monroe, Mich./Monroe) added a fifth-place finish in the weight throw.
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Trine returns to action Friday, Jan. 29 when the Thunder host the Don and Riley Zimmer Indoor Classic in Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Athletic Recreation Center. Events are slated to begin at 5 p.m.