Grantham, PA– Behind several key performances including first-place finishes from junior Hank Miller and senior Pete Moreni the DeSales University men's track & field team took home its first-ever MAC Track & Field Championship on Saturday afternoon hosted at Messiah College starting on Thursday afternoon.
The Bulldogs finished with 183 total points, 13 points ahead of second-place Widener University to take home the team title. Head coach Al Weiner was named the MAC Coach of the Year for the first time in his 25th year coaching the Bulldogs track & field team.
The championship came down to the second-to-last event, the 5,000-meters where the Bulldogs pulled away when three DSU runners finished among the top eight including freshman Bryan Megee in third place (15:29.07), senior Mike Curry in sixth place (15:35.24), and senior Jack Tarpey in seventh place (15:47.32).
Miller and Moreni were the only two Bulldogs to earn individual MAC Championships finishing first in the 400-meter hurdles when Moreni crossed in a time of 56.31 and first in the discus with a toss of 152-02 feet.
Other top finishers for the Bulldogs included junior Ryan Hastings finishing seventh in the 100-meters, sophomore Eric Altpeter taking seventh in the 200-meters (22.80), and freshman Wendell Phillips finishing eighth in both the 100 and 200 meters despite a slight leg injury.
In the 400-meters, Moreni finished sixth (51.69), junior Brent Clauser was fourth in the 800-meters (1:54.89), senior Paul Ecker was seventh in the 800-meters (2:01.47), and Tarpey was seventh in the 10,000-meters (32:57.40).
In the 110-meter hurdles sophomore Neal Fox ran well taking second with a time of 15.11 and freshman Ryan Dagenais was fourth with a time of 16.04 seconds. DSU had four runners place in the top eighth in the 400-hurdles with Moreni including sophomore Ben Badilla who took second with a time of 56.70, Fox in fifth place (57.45), and freshman Zac Sikanowicz in seventh place (57.66).
In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Curry finished second with a time of 9:37.34, senior Andrew Ferretti finished fourth with a time of 9:57.48, junior Dan Szilagyi was fifth (10:03.56), and sophomore Gerard Sclafani was eighth (10:17.27).
The relays faired extremely well with the 4x100 team taking first place and the 4x400 and 4x800 team each taking second place.
Junior Andrew MacNiven was third in the high jump (6-02.00), Fox finished fourth (6-02.00), and sophomore Tyler Parisi was seventh (5-08.00). Freshman Adam Mathias was fifth in the pole vault (13-01.50), Fox finished seventh in the long jump (20-09.00), sophomore Brandon Esterly was third in the triple jump (43-02.50) and MacNiven was eighth (41-10.75).
Senior Ken Devens was second in the shot put (48-03.50), third in the discus (137-06), and fifth in the hammer throw (157-04). Miller finished second in the hammer throw (167-05) to go along with his first place in the discus and sophomore Jon Langton was sixth in the shot put (43-01.75). Freshman Jeff Breidinger was seventh in the discus (124-06), Parisi finished seventh in the javelin (158-00) and third in decathlon (4,887 points), and freshman Stephan Jokic was sixth in the decathlon (4,347 points) rounding out the top finishers.Apr May 2011 Jun