READING, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley men's indoor track and field team had eight new Middle Atlantic Conference Championship qualifiers on Saturday at the PLEX Shootout on the campus of Alvernia University in Reading. Noah Griffin broke the school record in the 5,000 meters competing at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES AND MAC QUALIFIERS
Derek McCardell and Owen Linder qualified for the 60-meter final with McCardell running a career best time of 7.19 seconds and Linder running a career best time of 7.21 seconds. Linder finished sixth in the final with a time of 7.25 seconds while McCardell didn't run. Zach Reed finished sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 23.59 seconds. Donovan Goundie was fourth in the 400 meters with a season best time of 54.04 seconds while Matt Bruchak was seventh in 54.16 seconds. Vinny Ferrizzi ran 2:00.48 in the 800 meters to finish third. Alec Di Cesare was right behind him in 2:00.62. Elijah McKell was eighth with a time of 2:02.63. Caleb Scarborough qualified for the MAC Championships in the 800 with a time of 2:05.02.
 
Eric Shelton qualified for MACs in the mile with a time of 4:37.27. Sam Rothstein finished third in the 3000 meters with a MAC qualifying time of 8:53.24. Jordan Berger and Donnie Miller both qualified in the 5000 meters. Berger ran a career best time of 16:01.37 while Miller had a time of 16:13.96. Daniel Murtha finished third in the 60-meter hurdles running 8.71 seconds in the prelims and then a career best 8.61 seconds in the final. The Dutchmen relay teams had a great day as the 4x200 squad of Linder, Alex Sabo, Murtha, and Reed finished third in 1:34.80 and the 4x400 team of McKell, Ferrizzi, Scarborough, and Di Cesare won in 3:35.82.
 
Gabriel Vellios was seventh in the high jump with a MAC qualifying height of 1.78 meters (5'10"). Ayden Stankus was third in the pole vault with a height of 4.30 meters (14'1.25") while Darren Rodoff was sixth with a mark of 3.85 meters (12'7.5"). Daniel Sheffield was seventh in the long jump with a mark of 6.05 meters (19'10.25") on his second jump. Alex Sabo and Michael DeFalcis both qualified for the MAC Championships in the heptathlon after Sabo hit 5.66 meters (18'7") and DeFalcis reached 5.24 meters (17'2.25") in the long jump. Trey Reynold had another great day throwing finishing eighth in the shot put with a mark of 13.51 meters (44'4") on his second toss and seventh in the weight throw with a throw of 15.52 meters (50'11") on his fifth attempt.
 
INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
Griffin broke his second school record of the year running in the 5000 meters at Boston University's Valentine Invitational. Racing against a stacked field that included runners in all three divisions, Griffin finished in 15:15.46 to break the previous record of 15:17.34 run by Scott Young in 1990. Griffin currently holds both distance records after breaking the 3000-meter record earlier this year. He lowered his career best time by over 20 seconds. McCardell and Linder moved up on the top 10 list of the 60 meters with their career best times. McCardell is now tied for the fourth fastest time while Linder is tied for sixth. Rothstein moved into the 3000-meter list at sixth with his time of 8:53.24. Berger also enters the record books in the 5000 meters with his time of 16:01.37 which is 10th.
 
UP NEXT
The Dutchmen will head to Susquehanna next Saturday for their final regular season meet at the SU Tune-Up.

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