INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Trine University men's track and field program was in split squad action on Thursday at both the Marian University Open and WashU Distance Carnival, with the in-state event wrapping up.
At the Marian University Open, the Thunder men found themselves inside the top-10 in every event entered among a field of eight teams, mostly in the NAIA ranks of the state of Indiana.
Tyler Hartleroad secured the team's lone event win in the 1500-meter run at 4:05.07. Philip Nemechek was second (4:06.57) and Matthew Rankin fifth (4:10.78) to take three of the top five spots in the race. Blake Overmyer (15:43.19) was third in the 5000-meter run to conclude the team's efforts in distance events.
The trio of Greysen Spohn, Morgan Johnson and Colten Zableckis led Trine in multiple events. Spohn was fifth in the 200-meter dash (22.68 seconds) and seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.23 seconds) on Thursday afternoon. Johnson competed in the pole vault (4.25 meters / 13' 11.25") and long jump (6.19 meters / 20' 3.75") to place sixth and tenth overall. Zableckis was the team leader in a pair of throws events, the shot put (13.97 meters / 45' 10.00") and the hammer throw (45.98 / 150' 10.00"). He would finish seventh in the shot put and sixth in the hammer throw.
Other field events saw Kimball Hughes score an eighth-place spot in the discus at 40.49 meters (132' 10.00"), Andrew Cogswell eighth in the triple jump (11.06 meters / 36' 3.50") and Hunter Eifert ninth in the high jump (1.72 meters / 5' 7.75").
Ryan Smith paced the squad in the 400-meter run with a sixth-place time of 52.17 seconds. Samuel Sering was fourth overall in the 800-meter run after crossing the finish line in 1:59.00. The 4x400-meter relay team of Nemechek, Jack Melvin, Hartleroad and Eli Shoup was fourth as well with a time of 3:30.04.
Last but not least, Joshua Slimak and Shoup were the highest-scoring finishers for the Thunder in each of the hurdle events. Slimak was fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.42 seconds while Shoup secured a time of 1:00.25 en route to an eighth-place spot.
Friday, March 29 will feature another split day, with some still competing at WashU for the Distance Carnival and others at the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State University.
