men's track

May 15: St. Lawrence University's 4x100 relay team of Jay Thornhill, Devaun McFarland, Jarell Roberts and Kevin Burrall improved the St. Lawrence record on Friday at the ECAC Outdoor Championships, but came up just short of their goal of NCAA qualification.

May 9: Saturday's soggy Saint Twilight Qualifier at the Merrick-Pinkard Track and Field Complex wasn't about winning, it was all about performance.

Athletes from St. Lawrence were joined by competitors from five other New York State collegiate teams plus athletes from the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Lions Track Club with the U.S. athletes looking to meet qualifying marks or improve on existing qualifications for the upcoming ECAC and NCAA Championships.

While the weather was far from ideal for the meet, several performances improved seedings for Saint athletes. Junior Eric Jones moved up four spots on the national list in the hammer, depending upon other meets conducted during the weekend, as he threw 54.77 (179-8) to improve his NCAA qualification status. That throw currently ranks 12th nationally.

The Saint 4x100 relay team of Jay Thornhill, Devaun McFarland, Kevin Burrall and Jarell Roberts just missed NCAA provisional qualifying with a time of 42.44 while Thornhill finished second in the 100 in 11.00 seconds and Kevin Burrall met ECAC standards with a 55.46 run in the 400 meter hurdles.

Jeremy Mwenda, who met NCAA provisional qualification in the steeplechase last weekend at the NYSCTC Championships, ran 15:10.18 in the 5000 meters to meet ECAC qualification in that event.

Justin Spalik jumped 6.17 meters in the long jump and ran the 110 high hurdles in 15.94 seconds while Geoff Millard ran 1:57.81 and Mark Burnham 1:58.63 in the 800. Sky Heiss ran 51.83 and Chris Funch 53.20 in the 400 meters.

A QUARTET OF INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS, TEAM FINISHED THIRD AT NYSCTC MEET

May 2: St. Lawrence University's men's outdoor track team had a quartet of champions on Saturday, but had to settle for third place in the 2009 New York State Collegiate Track Conference Outdoor Championships at the Merrick-Pinkard Track Complex.

The Saints, fifth in the team scoring after day one of the two-day event, scrambled up the team standings with a number of strong showings on Saturday and pulled to within four points of second-place Rensselaer with a 28-point performance in the 5000 meters. RPI held off the Saint charge with a third place finish in the 4x400 relay while the Saints finished seventh and were third in the meet behind Ithaca, which had 201 points and the Engineers with 143. The Saints had 135 points and RIT was fourth in the nine-team field with 130.5.

Sophomore Jeremy Mwenda started Saturday's competition on the right foot for the Saints as he won the 3000 meter steeplechase in 9:21.60, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark and just two seconds off the Saint record which was set in 1985. Steve Kiplagat won the title in the 1500 meters, running 3:57.53 with a strong final lap kick, Jay Thornhill was the 100 meter champion with a wind-aided 10.74 and Dan Ramsey led the impressive Saint showing in the 5000 meters, winning in 15:27.68.

Kiplagat was named the 2009 NYSCTC Outdoor Men's Rookie of the Year for his performance in the meet.

April 27: St. Lawrence University freshman Justin Spalik finished fifth in his first collegiate decathlon championship, scoring 5135 points in the ten-event competition.

Cory Petermann of Ithaca won the title with 6216 points. Competition at Ithaca concluded on Monday with the final five events which include hurdles, discus, javelin, pole vault and the 1500 meters. Points are awarded based on time or distance in each of the ten events.

Spalik scored 3,082 points on Sunday, winning the long jump with a 6.31 meter leap worth 656 points. He was third in the high jump at 1.82 meters for 644 points, fourth in the 100 meters in 11.9 seconds for 671 points, fourth in the 400 meters in 51.83 for 732 points and sixth in the shot put with a 8.21 meter throw for 379 points.

The Saint rookie won the hurdles in 16.07 seconds to score 725 points in Monday's first event and finished sixth in the discus with a 26.02 meter throw for 387 points. His bid for a top three finish was hurt when he did not clear a height in the pole vault and did not score any points in that event. He bounced back with a 37.18 meter throw in the javelin to finish fifth in that event with 401 points and ran 5:01.86 in the 1500 meters, finishing fourth and scoring 549 points.

 

April 26: Steve Kiplagat won the 1500 meter championship at the Big Red Invitational at Cornell on Sunday to highlight Saint performances in the meet.

Kiplagat ran 3:59.00 to edge Cornell's Pete Loy by .42 of a second in the 41 runner field.

Other top five performances by Saint athletes included Kevin Burrall's second in 55.50 in the 400 meter hurdles, a second by Austin Carpenter with a throw of 57.29 in the javelin, Jeremy Mwenda's second place finish in 9:34.31 in the 3000 meter steeplechase, a fourth with a throw of 52.24 in the hammer by Eric Jones and a fifth in 16:05.34 by Tim Liponis in the 5000 meters.

Jarell Roberts was sixth in the 100 meters in 11.13 seconds and ninth in the 200 in 22.58. Mark Burnham was eighth in 1:57.40 in the 800 meters, Todd Lavigne was eighth, Alex Calderwood was 10th, Jimmy Mayers was 11th and Andrew Sargrad 12th in the 5000 and Devaun McFarland was seventh in the triple jump and finished 12th in the 100 meters.

Terrance Fox was 11th in the 800, Andrew Goodwin finished 14th in the 1500, Jon Mellinger was 12th in the 400 hurdles, Jordan Lewis was 14th in the shot and Ryan Ransom was 11th in the hammer for other top-15 finishes by Saint athletes.

The Saints will host the 2009 New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships at the Merrick-Pinkard Track Complex beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday May 1.

April 23: St. Lawrence University sophomores Dan Ramsey and Wendy Pavlus each ran at the Penn Relays Thursday night with Ramsey meeting NCAA Division III provisional qualifying status in the 10,000 meters.

Pavlus, who was battling a cold, finished 33rd and was the only Division III runner in the field in the women's 5000 meters, running 17:50.62.

Ramsey was 15th in a 35-runner field in the 10,000 meters and ran 30:48.76 which is under the NCAA provisional mark.

Both Pavlus and Ramsey will be back in action Sunday at Cornell.

April 18: The Saint sprinters took center stage on day two of the Cortland Classic Saturday as the Saint 4x100 relay team set a program record with a win in that event and senior Jay Thornhill and freshman Jarell Roberts had strong performances in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.

In opening day events on Friday, sophomore Dan Ramsey just missed NCAA provisional qualifying standards with a strong showing in the 5000 meters, Eric Jones improved his qualifying mark with a win in the hammer and the Saint 4x400 relay team turned in an excellent performance for the Saint highlights.

The team of Brad Williams, Thornhill, Burrall and Roberts ran 42.85 to win the 4x100, trimming .03 off the Saint record set in 2007 by a team which also included Thornhill and Burrall. Thornhill was second in 11.18 seconds and Roberts, who is coming off an illness and ran his first outdoor meet of the year, was third in 11.19. Thornhill was fourth in 22.28 and Roberts sixth in 22.63 in the 200.

Ramsey ran 14:46.90 and finished second in the 5000, missing NCAA provisional qualifying by 1.9 seconds. His time was one of the top 15 in the country thus far this season. He will run in the Penn Relays later this week. The 4x400 team of Chris Pugliano, Chris Funch, Burrall and Thornhill ran 3:20.21, finishing third and just under four seconds off provisional qualifying.

April 11: Senior Jay Thornhill won both the 100 and 200 meter championships and was among four Saint individual champions, but the St. Lawrence University men's outdoor track and field team had its string of Liberty League outdoor titles snapped at two by host Rensselaer on Satudray.

Rensselaer finished the meet with 260 points with the Saints second with 194. Union was a distant third with 77 points while Vassar was fourth with 44.

Thornhill won the 100 in 11.51 seconds and the 200 in 23.15 seconds and ran the lead leg on the 4x100 relay team which finished second to account for 22 points in the meet. Steve Kiplagat, who won the 1500 in 4:04.48, leading a Saint pack in a 29-point event, and Dan Ramsey, who won the 5000 in 15:17.24 were the other track event winners for the Saints while freshman Justin Spalik won the long jump with a 6.53 meter leap on his final jump of the day, meeting ECAC standards.

The Saints also had a championship in the 4x800 relay, the team of Mike Fox, Will Mosenthal, Mark Burnham and Kiplagat winning in 8:20.03.

Senior Devaun McFarlane also had a solid meet for the Saints, finishing second in the 100, third in the 200 and second in the triple jump in his first ever outdoor meet.

Apr. 5: St. Lawrence University's track and field team opened its outdoor season with a solid showing at the Continental Invitational on Sunday, winning four individual events and a relay.

Terrance Fox won the 1500 meters for the Saints in 4:05.62, Steve Kiplagat led a Saints sweep of the top three spots in the 800 with a win in 1:58.71, Austin Carpenter won the javelin with a throw of 48.75 meters and Stephen Moore won the pole vault, edging teammate Bradley Williams on attempts as both cleared 3.81 meters.

The Saints also won the 4x400 relay with a 3:31.43 clocking with a team of Geoff Millard, Mike and Terrance Fox and Chris Funch.

Dan Ramsey was second in the 1500 with Josh LeBlanc finishing sixth while Justin Spalik finished second in the 110 high hurdles. Kevin Burrall was second, Sky Heiss third and Chris Pugliano was fourth in the 400 while Chris Funch was second and Mike Fox third behind Kiplagat in the 800. Tim Lipoinis finished fourth and Will Manning was fifth in the 5000 meters.

In field events, Jonathan Cypers finished third in the javelin, Kurt Viskoski was third in the high jump, Ryan Ransom was fourth in the hammer and Spalik added a fifth in the long jump.

 

March 26: Junior thrower Eric Jones, freshman sprinter Jarell Roberts and coach John Newman earned Liberty League indoor track and field honors in voting by league coaches.

A seven-time Liberty League Field Performer of the Week, Jones won the weight throw championship and was second in the shot at the Liberty League and was NYSCTC and ECAC Champion in the weight. He finished second in the NCAA Championships and was the Atlantic Region Field Athlete of the Year.

A four-time selection as Liberty League Rookie of the Week, Roberts was Liberty League champion in the 55 and 200, NYSCTC 55 meter champion and second in the 200, and anchored the NYSCTC and ECAC Champion 4x200 relay team. He added a fifth place finish in the ECAC 55 meters.

Newman coached his St. Lawrence team to the NYSCTC Championship and the ECAC Championship and was named Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. He is assisted by Mike Howard, Melissa DeRan, Matt Kuenzel, and Kaela Schramm