ERIE, Pa. - The Franciscan University men's and women's track & field teams competed at the Penn State Behrend Invitational on Saturday. The men's team put in a strong performance with a fourth-place finish while the women took eighth.
The Barons opened up the meet with an excellent second place finish in the 4x100 meter relay with a time of 46.78. The team consisted of Timothy Quayle, James Mello, Ben Erste and Timothy Wiese.
Erste continued running in prime form as he set a new personal best and took second place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.79 seconds.
"I believe this was our highest finish in an invitational this season, which was very impressive," said assistant coach Alan Schreck.
In the 400-meter race, Quayle and Mello each ran strong heats as the duo finished fourth and fifth overall in the event. Quayle took fourth after crossing the line at 54.09 while Mello took fifth at 54.28.
On the women's side just two Lady Barons competed as the team has been rehabbing injuries in preparation for the Colonial States Athletic Conference meet in two weeks.
However, Annemarie Krall ran an excellent race in the 400-meters taking fourth place with a time of 1:05.54, securing a new personal best.
Middle distance coach Shaun McKeegan said that it was an usual day for the distance runners as many of them were running unfamiliar events and there were not many opportunities for personal bests. That being said, freshman Nick Long ran close to a personal best in the 5,000-meter run taking third place in a time of 16:17.54.
This was the last meet of the regular season for the Barons before the CSAC Championships.
"We're really gearing up now for the conference," said Schreck. "We're excited for a good showing."
McKeegan said that team is really looking forward to having a week to rest before competing in the conference championships.
"It would not be wrong to say that we have travelled a lot in the past few weeks," said McKeegan.
CSAC Championships will be held May 7-8 at Gwyneed Mercy College in Gwyneed, Pa. This is the first year the Franciscan track & field teams will compete at a conference championship meet.
