GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Trine men's track and field team placed second at MIAA Field Day, which concluded Friday at Calvin College.
Thunder performers earned three first-place finishes today to bring their two-day total to five wins. Trine scored 161 points to finish second to Calvin. Patrick Richardville (Leo, Ind. / Leo) won two events, while the 4-x-100-meter relay team, Jeffery Barnett (Fremont, Ohio / Fremont-Ross) and Ryan Haarer (Goshen, Ind. / Northridge) added first-place finishes in the conference championship meet.
Richardville set a school record in his win in the 200-meter dash. His record time of 21.59 seconds ranks 12th in the nation in NCAA Division III and puts the junior in line for a potential bid to the national meet. Richardville also won his second conference title in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 10.82 seconds in that event.
Richardville also made up a leg of the victorious 4-x-100-meter relay group. Richardville, Nick Hayes (Merrillville, Ind. / Merrillville), James Washington (Michigan City, Ind. / Michigan City) and Barnett combined for the win in a tightly-contested race. The Thunder team of runners turned in a time of 42.05 seconds to win by .14 seconds.
Barnett also saw success in individual sprints, where he placed second in the 100-meter dash and fifth in the 200-meter dash. Washington added a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash, while Jacob Root (Vicksburg, Mich. / Vicksburg) notched a seventh-place run in the 200-meter dash.
Yesterday, Barnett won the long jump with a distance of 7.14 meters (23 feet,5.5 inches) to set a new school record. He now holds the school's indoor and outdoor records in the event. Haarer rounded out Trine's gold winners yesterday with a win in the pole vault. He cleared a height of 4.50 meters (14 feet, 9 inches).
Mat Bollan (Pleasant Lake, Ind. / Angola) notched a pair of runner-up finishes in hurdle events. The freshman ran a time 15.13 seconds to place second in the 110-meter hurdles and crossed the finish line in 56.70 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles. Both performances set new personal-bests.
Jasper Bassett (Auburn, Ind. / DeKalb) rounded out the runner-up performances on the track. He ran a time of 49.05 seconds in the 400-meter dash.
Nick Gerber (Goshen, Ind. / Goshen) led three Thunder performers who scored in the hammer throw. Gerber unleashed a throw of 48.82 meters (160 feet, 2 inches) to place second. Mitch Martin (Monroe, Mich. / Monroe) added a third-place finish at 48.43 meters (158 feet, 11 inches), while Andrew Bunting (Brunswick, Ohio / Brunswick) placed fourth in his final MIAA meet.
Yesterday, Derek Scott (Niles, Mich. / Niles) notched a second-place finish in the shot put. Skyler Dunckley (Cedar, Mich. / Traverse City West) placed seventh. Martin added a fourth-place performance in the discus throw, while David Schaaf (Kokomo, Ind. / Northwestern) scored with an eighth-place finish in the javelin throw.
The 4-x-400-meter relay squad finished in fourth place. The team was made up of Richardville, Bollan, Barnett and Bassett.
Pacing Trine's efforts in distance events today was Jordan Zamarron (Ionia, Mich. / Ionia), who placed fourth in the 5,000-meter run. He ran a time of 15:44.27. Robert Duke (Greentown, Ind. / Eastern) and Aaron Mast (Ligonier, Ind. / West Noble) scored in seventh and eighth respectively. The performances added on to Collin Elek's (Osceola, Ind. / Penn) fourth-place finish with a personal-best in the 10,000-meter run yesterday.
Austin Ganger (Mishawaka, Ind. / Penn) scored in two events, placing sixth in the 1,500-meter run and seventh in the 800-meter run. Jonathan Phillips (Royal Center, Ind. / Pioneer) added a personal-best to finish seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Adrien Howard (Marion, Ind. / Marion) placed seventh in the 1,500-meter run. Eric Townsend (Greenwood, Ind. / Roncalli) placed seventh in the long jump yesterday.
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Members of Trine's men's track and field team will compete in last-chance meets over the next several weeks to try to solidify bids to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championship in Geneva, Ohio.
