ALLIANCE, Ohio- The Franciscan University track & field teams put on an impressive performance at the John Doman Invitational at Mount Union University, featuring a number of personal bests and a new school record.
The foursome of Timothy Quayle, James Mello, Ben Erste and Carlo Fabian ran a strong race in the 4x100-meter relay taking a fourth place finish with a time of 45.68, setting the school record for the Barons.
Overall, it was a very strong day for the sprinters. Erste started things off with a new personal best and a ninth place finish in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.92. He then followed it up with another personal best in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.18. Fabian followed close on Erste's tail with his own personal best in the 200-meter with a time of 24.20.
"Even with the wintry weather the sprinters performed admirably," said sprint coach Dr. Alan Schreck. "Running in cold weather difficult, so to secure those PRs was really impressive."
Middle distance coach Shaun McKeegan also commented on how cold the weather was, but said that it was not as bad as it would have been on Saturday when the meet was originally scheduled.
For the middle distance runners, Emily Theurer led the way with a solid race in 1500-meter run, finishing with a time of 5:04.59. This was a new personal best for Theurer, beating her previous time by six seconds.
"Emily has been struggling with some injuries lately so to get this personal best was really encouraging for her," said McKeegan.
The Barons also got to see senior Brian Tullier compete for the first time this season in the shot put. Despite not placing, the coaches were very interested to see how he'll progress from here.
As for the team's effort the coaches were very pleased and they noted the teams weekly improvement.
"We're in a good place," said Schreck. "They're getting better every week."
"We have about two weeks until we start getting ready for conference championships," said McKeegan. "Even though we're a small team, we're looking forward to competing and we believe we can place very well."
The Barons continue their season April 16 at Westminster College.
