CHICAGO, Ill. – The Trine University men's track and field team was in action on Friday afternoon in the Aurora Grand Prix inside the Gately Indoor Facility. The Thunder men placed third overall in a field of 17 NCAA DIII teams. Loras College pulled away for the team win at 103 points, with North Central College and Trine in a tight race for second at 76.5 points and 73.5 points.
Several student-athletes put together personal best times, and Jake Gladieux was able to top one of his school records on the day. He lowered his time in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.16 seconds, good for fifth in the event. Greysen Spohn was just behind in sixth in the 200 (22.41 seconds). Gladieux also led Trine in a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium in the 60-meter hurdles. Gladieux (8.21 seconds), Spohn (8.32 seconds) and Evan Selby (8.44 seconds) claimed the top three finishing positions in the event finals.
In distance events, the Thunder had multiple freshmen turn in personal best times. Joseph Packard was the best finishing Trine team member in the 5000-meter run at 15:09.80 (fifth), but newcomer to the program Ryan Hoopingarner tallied a sixth-place finish with a personal-best time of 15:14.30. Tyler Hartleroad and Holden Martin were the first Thunder student-athletes to cross the finish line in the 800-meter run and 3000-meter run, both in 12th. Hartleroad went 1:58.30 (personal record) while Martin claimed a time of 8:49.98.
Ethan Spahr scored the most points for Trine in field events thanks to a second-place finish in the long jump. Spahr leaped 6.59 meters (21' 7.50"). In the high jump, Justin Ackerman finished third at 1.88 meters (6' 2.00"). To complete the jump events, Spahr also notched a seventh-place finish in the triple jump at 12.51 meters (41' 0.50").
Theodore Samra placed in both the shot put and weight throw events for Trine. His third-place weight throw of 16.65 meters (54' 7.50") was the first of three finishers in the top 10 for the Thunder. Jacob Barkey (15.36 meters / 50' 4.75") and Alexander Lewis (14.90 meters / 48' 10.75") were seventh and ninth overall. Samra was fourth in the shot put as well (14.72 meters / 48' 3.50") with Lewis behind in eighth (13.47 meters / 44' 2.50").
A tenth-place finish from Nathan Leap highlighted the pole vault event for Trine. He reached a height of 4.10 meters (13' 5.25").
On Saturday, January 28, the women will participate in the Aurora Grand Prix and following that, both teams will be at home inside the Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Athletic and Recreation Center (ARC) for the Mrs. G Invitational. That event begins at noon on Saturday, February 4.