Moravian Leads After Day One Of Landmark Track & Field Championships
SELINSGROVE, Pa. – With six events complete in both the men's and women's competition, the two-time defending champions from Moravian College have assumed familiar places atop the standings after day one of the 2010 Landmark Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa.
The race is tightest on the men's side where 17 points separate the top three teams. Moravian is in the lead with a score of 76, while host Susquehanna sits nine points back with 67. Juniata College rounds out the top three with 59 points. The United States Merchant Marine Academy scored 15 points on day one, while The Catholic University of America and Goucher College picked up nine and eight points respectively on Saturday.
Three individual event wins helped the Moravian women build a substantial lead in its quest for a third-straight title as the team accumulated 87 points. Susquehanna sits in second with 72, while Juniata is third with 34. Catholic holds fifth position with 25, followed by Goucher with 12 and USMMA with four.
Four field events were completed on Saturday along with a pair of finals on the track. There were a total of four meet records set on the day, along with a pair of Landmark records and three winners recorded NCAA provisional qualifying performances.
One of those records came from one of Moravian's three event winners on the women's side as Brittany Moses claimed the discus with a toss of 38.53-meters which broke her own Landmark and meet record. Also capturing wins on the day for the Greyhounds were Anna Heim who notched her third straight pole vault title by clearing an NCAA provisional height of 3.64-meters, and Symonne Scott who jumped 5.50-meters to win the long jump for the third consecutive year.
Juniata, Catholic and Susquehanna split the other three wins in the women's meet on day one. Casey Hess ran a time of 40:48.50 to win the 10,000-meters for Susquehanna. Freshman Laura Kinley was victories for Catholic by running 4:51.31 to claim the 1,500-meters. And Juniata's Kristyn Ginter produced the longest throw in the javelin with a winning toss of 38.82 meters.
On the men’s side there were three new meet records established, and six NCAA provisional qualifying marks. Moravian’s lone victory of the day came from Timothy Layng who cleared an NCAA provisional height of 4.72-meters to win the pole vault in a new meet record. His teammate Nicco Dalpiaz also cleared that height for a qualifying mark, but Layng took the win by clearing it in fewer attempts.
Susquehanna’s Braden Klingler also produced an NCAA mark with his winning toss of 60.08-meters to win the javelin event. In addition, Moravian’s Gary Zack and Juniata’s Dustin Drake and Ryan Johnson all hit the NCAA provisional mark. Klingler’s teammate Paul Thistle narrowly missed an NCAA qualifying time, but he did break his own Landmark and meet record by running 3:55.60 to win the 1,500-meters.
The final meet record, and final three individual wins belonged to Juniata. Matthew Bailey set a new meet mark and crossed the line first in the 10,000-meters by running 33:14.62. Nicholas Bauer gave the Eagles another win by jumping 6.81-meters to place first in the long jump. And Justin Clapper had the best toss in the discus with a mark of 38.81-meters to place first.
Competition will conclude at the Landmark Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Sunday with the remaining events all being contested.
