CHESTER, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley men's outdoor track and field team had two school records broken this weekend as the Dutchmen competed at the Widener Invitational. Noah Griffin broke the 5,000 meter record on Friday evening while Ayden Stankus had a career best in the pole vault to break his own record.
 
MAC AND AARTFC QUALIFIERS PLUS OTHER TOP PERFORMANCES
LVC had a great day in the 800 meters as three Dutchmen qualified for the MAC Championships and two qualified for the AARTFC Championships. Elijah McKell ran 1:54.87 to qualify for the Regional Championships while Alec Di Cesare ran 1:56.94 to qualify for both the conference and regional championships. Christian Morrison and Caleb Scarborough were new MAC qualifiers in the event with time of 2:01.40 and 2:01.75. Vinny Ferrizzi qualified for the AARTFC Championships in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:58.95.
Daniel Murtha finished second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.06 seconds while Zach Reed was third with a new AARTFC Championship qualifying time of 15.22 seconds. Kadan Smith was seventh with a time of 15.82 seconds. Reed also qualified for the regional championship in the 400 hurdles with a time of 55.92 seconds to finish third. The 4x100 meter relay team of Murtha, Smith, Owen Linder, and Alex Sabo finished third with a time of 43.48 seconds.
 
Stankus recorded a career best height of 4.55 meters (14'11") to win the pole vault. He recorded his new school record on his third try at that height. Trey Reynolds finished sixth in the hammer with a throw of 49.13 meters (161'2") on his sixth attempt. Ian Paul won the javelin with a toss of 54.60 meters (179'2") on his sixth throw.
 
INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
Griffin broke another long-standing record on Friday night. His huge career best time of 14:38.01 is nearly a full 30 seconds faster than the previous record time of 15:02.44 that Joel Carpenter ran in 1979. Jordan Berger joined Griffin in the top 10 of the 5,000 meters with his time of 15:24.07 which is ninth. Stankus improved his record in the pole vault with a career best height of 4.55 meters. His previous best was 4.50 meters that he accomplished last week.
 
Ferrizzi moved from sixth to fifth in the 1500 meters with his career best run of 3:58.95. Andy Loy joined the top 10 list at eighth with a time of 4:03.17. McKell is now sixth in the 800 meters with his time of 1:54.87. Murtha ran a career best time of 15.06 seconds in the 110 hurdles to move from 10th to seventh.
 
UP NEXT
The Dutchmen will close out the regular season next Saturday at Shippensburg with the annual Paul Kaiser Classic.

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