For the Shippensburg University’s men’s outdoor track and field team, the 12th annual Paul Kaiser Classic was the final tune-up before it heads to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) meet on May 12-14.
Sophomore Dru Adighibe led SU on the track with two first place finishes. Adighibe finished the 100-meter dash in 10.79 seconds and the 200-meter dash in a meet record breaking 21.60 seconds. Senior RJ Smith snagged a fifth place finish in the 200-meter with a time of 22.37 seconds.
Sophomore Ricky Meriwether took third in the 400-meter race with a time of 49.46 seconds while junior Tim Usher and senior Bernard England took second (1:53.34) and fifth (1:54.95) in the 800-meter, respectively. Dominic Stroh claimed a victory in the 1500-meter race with a time of 3:54.42.
SU had a quite a few top five finishes in the longer distanced races. Junior Calvin Conrad-Kline placed fourth in the 3K (8:56.92), senior Zack Despreaux placed fifth in the 3K steeple race (9:55.66), sophomore Alex Balla placed first in the 5K (15:08.73), senior Austin McGinley placed first in the 10K (32:19.50) and junior Alec Brand placed fourth in the 10K (32:47.62). McGinley’s performance in the 10K broke the meet record as well.
Freshman Ori Rinaman earned a first place finish in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.95 seconds and a second place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.88 seconds. Junior Terry Jackson placed fifth in the 110-meter hurdles event (15.60 seconds).
The SU jumpers had an excellent showing on Saturday with junior Danny Meyer and sophomore Pat Manna placing in the pole vaulting event. Meyer tied for second with a jump of 14’ 5 1/4” while Manna tied for fifth with a jump of 13’ 1 1/4”.
Sophomore Aboubacar Keita had a season best jump in the long jump event with a fourth place mark of 23’ 1/2”. Senior Devon Fisher claimed fifth place in the triple jump (44’ 7”).
Redshirt freshman Aaron Webb placed third in the high jump event, clearing the bar at 6’ 3 1/2”. SU’s junior Jalen Ramsey traveled to Philadelphia to represent SU in the high jump event at the competitive Penn Relays. Ramsey placed third with a jump of 6’ 11 1/2”.
The throwers claimed many victories for SU on Saturday. Sophomore Bryan Pearson won the shot put event with an NCAA-Provisional qualifying throw of 53’ 6 1/2”. Sophomore Alec Rideout followed close behind for a second place finish with a throw of 53’ 4 1/2”. Rideout’s throw also qualified for NCAA-Provisionals.
Pearson claimed another victory in the discus event (172’ 1”). Junior Caleb Bartlett and Rideout followed with a fourth place finish (155’ 8”) and a fifth place finish (154’ 3”), respectively.
In the hammer throw, Bartlett took second (195’ 11”), graduate student Wulf Sutcliffe took third (183’ 11”) and senior Garrett Vandebrake took fifth (168’ 7”).
Junior Derek Nothstein represented SU in the javelin event with a second place finish and an NCAA-Provisional qualifying mark of 205’ 6”.
The SU men’s team will take the next two weeks to prepare for the PSAC meet which will be held at Mansfield University.
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