men's track

Mar. 13: St. Lawrence University junior Eric Jones earned All America status with a second place finish in the 35 pound weight throw at the NCAA Division III Championships at Rose Hulman on Friday.

Jones threw 18.06 meters (59-3) on his final throw of the trials and the mark stood up as the second best in the competition. Top-seeded Sam Johnson of Wisconsin Eau Clair threw 19.83 (65-0.75) meters on his final throw of the qualifying round and that stood as the winning mark.

Jones fouled on his first attempt, but assured himself a spot in the finals with a 17.45 meter throw on his second throw of the trials.

 

Mar. 7: Eric Jones won the ECAC weight throw championship with the second best throw among Division III competitors this season and the Saint men's track team scored in five events on Saturday to capture its second straight ECAC Division III Indoor Championship at Tufts on Saturday.

The Saints finished the meet with 53 points, 12 more than second place Amherst with RIT third with 39. A total of 50 teams scored in the meet.

Jones joined the 4x200 relay team which won on Friday as a ECAC champion as he threw the weight 18.69 meters (61-4) to win the competition by over a meter. The throw is an NCAA automatic qualifying mark and trails only Sam Johnson of Wisconsin-Eau Clair, who threw 19.48 last weekend among the top throws this season.

Jarell Roberts and Jay Thornhill followed up Friday's record-matching run in the 4x200 with a fifth and seventh respectively in the 55 meters on Saturday. Roberts ran 6.57 while Thornhill ran 6.64 seconds. Roberts also finished fifth in the 200 meters with a 22.63 clocking.

Terrance Fox finished second in the 1000 meters in 2:30.51 and Brandon Kenny was seventh in 2:33.67 to give the Saints 10 points in that event. Steve Kiplagat scored with a seventh place finish in the mile, running 4:22.32 and the Saints finished seventh in the 4x800 relay to complete their scoring.

 

SAINTS WIN 4X200 AT ECAC INDOOR MEET

Feb. 22: St. Lawrence University freshman Justin Spalik finished fifth in his first intercollegiate pentathlon competition at Cornell on Sunday.

Spalik finished second in two of the five events and his overall point total of 3246 was fifth among 11 competitors. He earned four team points toward the New York State Collegiate Track Conference team championship with the main body of the meet to be conducted at RIT on Friday and Saturday.

The Saint rookie was second in the hurdles in 8.15 earning 797 points and had a personal best of 1.84 meters in the high jump, also finishing second and earning 661 points. He was fifth in the long jump with a 6.15 meter jump, worth 626 points and was fourth in the 1000 in 2:49.00 which earned 767 points. 

Bothered by a sore shoulder, he was seventh in the shot with a 8.60 throw which was worth 402 points and his only event in which he scored less than 600 points.

Feb. 21: Freshmen Jarell Roberts and Justin Spalik each made their mark on the Saint indoor track and field record books with performances at the Denault Invitational at Cornell on Saturday and junior thrower Eric Jones improved his own season's best performance in a dramatic weight throw.

Roberts improved his own record in the 60 meter dash to 7.03 seconds, finishing sixth after running a 7.10 in the preliminaries to advance to the finals. Both times beat his own previous record in the event. He nearly had a second record-setting run as he finished fifth in the 200 meters with a time of 22.80, just .36 off the current mark. Spalik tied Rob Ames' record of 8.63 with a sixth place finish in the 60 meter hurdles, qualifying for the final with a 8.71 time.

Jones was in danger of missing the finals after fouling on his first two throws in the weight, but threw 17.91 meters (58-9.25) with a two turn throw to qualify for the finals and that distance stood up for second overall in the event and improved his NCAA qualification status. His throw is the third best in the country for Division III competitors thus far this season.

The Saint 4x800 relay team of Josh LeBlanc, Jeremy Mwenda, Terrance Fox and Mark Burnham finished second in 8:05.44 while the 4x400 team of Chris Pugliano, Kevin Burrell, Brad Williams and Sky Heiss was fourth in 3:28.72.

Feb. 14 Rensselaer snapped St. Lawrence University's string of three straight Liberty League Indoor Track and Field Championships, outpointing the Saints 190-169 with Hamilton a distant third with 68 and Union fourth with 60 at the Newell Field House Saturday afternoon.

St. Lawrence trailed by only two points 133-131 with four events to go, but RPI took the top three spots in the high jump and won both the 4x400 and 4x200 relays to pull away for the championship.

The Saints got off to a good start on the track in what was going to be a tight meet from start to finish. SLU's Distance Medley Relay team improved its own Liberty League record set a year ago, running 10:41.66 with a team of Andrew Goodwin, Brad Williams, Josh LeBlanc and Brandon Kenny.

St. Lawrence also scored well in the dashes as freshman Jarell Roberts won both the 55 and 200 with senior Jay Thornhill second in both events. Roberts ran 6.53 in the 55 with Thornhill running 6.61 and Eric Jones added a fourth place finish for 22 points while Roberts won in 22.70 with Thornhill second and Kevin Burrall finished fifth for 20 points in the 200.

Dan Ramsey won the 5000 meters in 15:23.37 with Chris Jackson third and Jeremy Beaudette fifth to bring the Saints close with three events left.

Feb. 7: St. Lawrence University's Distance Medley Relay team finished fourth in the 17-team collegiate race at the New Balance Games among the highlight finishes for the Saints in the meet at the Armory in New York City.

The Saint team of Terrance Fox, Chris Pugliano, Mark Burnham and Mike Fox ran 10:19.15 in a race which was won by Fordham in 10:06.58.

Other top finishes for the Saints included a fifth in his section and 28th overall in the mile by Steve Kiplagat in 4:21.59. A total of 53 runners were in the race which was won by Michael Spooner of Tennessee in 4:10.31. Terrance Fox also competed in the event and ran 4:38.23, finishing 12th in his section.

Burnham was ninth in his section in 1:57.49 and 50th overall and Mike Fox was third in his section in 1:58.07 and 54th overall in the 84-runner field in the 800. Patrick Todd of Texas won the event with a time of 1:51.90. Eric Jones finished 27th in a 36-athlete field in the weight throw with a 15.04 (49-4.25) throw.

Jarell Roberts ran 7.08 and was 62nd overall and Jay Thornhill finished 79th with a 7.13 clocking in the 60 meter dash. The men's 4x400 relay ran 3:31.30 and was 12th in the New York State competition in that event.

SAINTS RECEIVE SPECIAL AWARD AT NEW BALANCE GAMES

Feb. 6: St. Lawrence University's men's and women's track and field program became the first recipient of the St. Lawrence Spirit Award at the New Balance Games at the Armory in New York City on Friday night.

Jan. 31: The Duel in Newell turned into a draw.

St. Lawrence University's men's indoor track and field team took on Fredonia in a rare dual meet Saturday afternoon and the Saints swept the final two events on the track for the afternoon, the 4x200 and 4x400 relays, to forge a 76-76 tie with the Blue Devils.

With the 5-3-2-1 scoring system taking some of the Saint depth out of the picture in terms of a team victory, the Saints ended up coming from behind to take the tie. The team of Jay Thornill, Justin Spalik, Kevin Burrall and Jarell Roberts ran 1;32.39 in the 4x200 relay, winning by a comfortable eight seconds and the quartet of Chris Pugliano, Mike Fox, Terrance Fox and Mark Burnham ran 3:31.67 in the 4x400 to win by nearly 10 seconds and overcome a four-point deficit heading into the relays.

Eric Jones was a double winner for the Saints while rookies Spalik and Chris Pugliano turned in big performances in the meet.

Freshman Jarell Roberts won both the 55 and 200 meter dashes and anchored the Saints to a win in the 4x200 meter relay as the St. Lawrence University men's indoor track and field team cruised to a victory in the 11-team Saint Indoor Invitational at the Newell Field House Saturday afternoon.

The Saints finished with 149 points with RIT second with 93, Brockport third with 85.5 and Rochester fourth with 85.

Roberts threatened both the NCAA provisional qualifying standard and the 20-year-old Saint record in the 55 meters as he won in 6.50 seconds, .03 seconds off the NCAA mark and .07 seconds off the SLU record held by Tim McCrossen. He also ran an impressive race in edging senior teammate Jay Thornhill for the title in the 200 meters. Roberts ran 22.70 seconds with Thornhill second in 22.77. Thornhill added a third in the 55 meters. Roberts and Thornhill joined Jon Mellinger and Kevin Burrall to win the 4x200 relay in 1:33.46.

Jeremy Mwenda came through with the other Saint individual victory as he won the 1000 in 2:35.39, leading a pack of Saints which included Josh LeBlanc in third, Mark Burnham in fifth and Michael Fox in sixth. Mwenda also led off the winning Distance Medley Relay team which won in 10:35.0. He was joined by Chris Funch, Burnham and Terrance Fox on the relay team.

Jan. 17: St. Lawrence University's men's indoor track and field team used its strength on the track to pull away from three competitors and take the team title in the 2009 St. Lawrence University Indoor Classic at the Newell Field House Saturday afternoon.

The Saints took first or second in seven of the nine events they ran in on the track and compiled 205 total points to easily outdistance Oswego, which was second with 115, Plattsburgh, third with 111 and Queen's fourth with 102.

Eric Jones had the lone field event win for the Saints as he took the weight throw with a 15.37 meter (53-8.5) throw, but the Saints picked up points with their depth. Ryan Ransom was second in the weight, Jordan Lewis was second in the shot, Sean Scott was third and Jarell Roberts fifth in the long jump with Scott also finishing third in the triple jump and Kurt Vesosky was fourth in the high jump.

The Saints took first and second in the mile and the 55 meters, swept the top three spots in the 1000 and went first, third and fourth in the 500. Terrance Fox won the mile in 4:24.24 with Steve Kiplagat second in the 4:25.05 while Kiplagat won the 1000 in 2:38.19 with Andrew Goodwin second and Brandon Kenny third. Jarell Roberts won the 55 in 6.62 seconds with Jay Thornhill second.

The Saints also swept the top three spots in the 3000 among scoring runners as Jeremy Beaudette ran 9:12.31 with Seth Jackson and Will Manning following. Bobby Asher, running unattached, was the first finisher in the race in 9:00.22.

Dec. 13 Junior Eric Jones met NCAA provisional qualification standards with a win in the weight throw and freshman Sean Scott won the long jump and was second in the triple jump to highlight Saint performances at the non-scoring Saint Holiday Relays held at the Newell Field House Saturday afternoon.

Jones threw the weight 16.81 meters (55-02) to win that event and meet NCAA provisional status in the first meet of the season while Scott picked up his first collegiate event victory with a 6.40 (21-0) long jump and came back to jump 12.80 (42-0) to finish second in the triple jump.

The Saints also had a trip of wins in relays, winning the 4x800 with a team of Matt Spicer, Dennis Chasweha, Matt Millard and Andrew Goodwin running 9:03.07; the 4x400 relay with Steve Kiplagat, Geoff Millard, Jeremy Mwenda and Goodwin running 3:36.09 and the Distance Medley Relay with the tam of Geoff Milalrd, Josh LeBalnc, Mark Burnham and Terrance Fox running 10:35.0.

Michael Fox was second, Kiplagat third and Mwenda fourth in an exciting mile run while Jarell Roberts was second in 6.56 seconds in the 55 meters. Justin Spalik added a second in the 55 hurdles and was fourth in the long jump while Dan Ramsey was third in 15:13.61 in the 5000 meters, Jordan Lewis was third in the shot with a 12.18 meter throw and Chris Funch added a fifth in the 400 meters.

JONES, SCOTT EARN LIBERTY LEAGUE HONORS