MOON TWP, PA – The Franciscan University men's and women's track and field team reached its season halfway point this Saturday at the 2010 Bennie Benson Memorial Invitational at Robert Morris University.  The team's hard work continued to show with the Lady Barons placing third out of eight competing teams and the Barons placing fourth out of eight teams.

Despite many of the FUS competitors camping out the night before, the team displayed outstanding performances on the afternoon. 

Noelle Kummant finished third overall in the 100 meter hurdles and shattered the previous school record with a 15.75 seconds mark, beating the previous mark by 2.75 seconds.  Also competing in the Triple Jump, Kummant finished fifth overall and bested her previous record with a jump of 10.15 meters. 

Katherine Manion placed first overall in the women's 5000 meter run with a record of 18:21.71 – topping her previous personal record on top of the win. 

Patrick Meier, Zachary Freeman, Nolan Cleary, and Hunter Mason finished third overall in the men's 4x100 meter relay with a time of 46.46 seconds, replacing the previous school mark of 47.32 seconds.

Junior Nathan Chase continued to show improvement in his events, placing fourth overall in the javelin with a throw of 43.43 meters.  Chase also broke the one minute mark in the 400 meter dash, setting a personal record of 59.45 seconds.

"I know that the team has 1,000 things going on in their lives, yet they continue to make it to practices and meets and give 110 percent with everything they do," head coach Vince Oliver commented.  "The dedication, hard work and continued faithfulness is admirable."

The team will travel next Saturday to New Wilmington to compete in the 2010 Westminster College Invitational.