ALLIANCE – The Franciscan men's and women's track and field teams opened their indoor season at the University of Mount Union Toy Drive Collegiate Invitational, Saturday.
 
"Today's meet was a great opportunity for us to get some hard work in and awaken the competitive spirits in everyone.," remarked head coach Vince Oliver. "My staff and I got the opportunity to see the strengths and weaknesses of some of our athletes. Our athletes got the opportunity to see actual competition outside of their very tough practices so far this year. More than anything we all were able to glorify God with our talents and our time and in everything that we did."
 
Fresh off of his appearance in the NCAA DIII Cross Country National Championship meet, sophomore Liam Galligan got right to work for the track season. Galligan won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:12.35, 17 seconds ahead of the next competitior.
 
On the women's side, freshman Allison Bryant took fourth in the 3.000-meter run witih a time of 11:40.24 and classmate Mary Jo Schriger came in fifth at 11:40.42.
 
The men's distance medley relay team ran a solid race to open the year as Michael Sobus, Mark Borek, Nicholas Long, and Jack Spiller finished second with a time of 11:31.35.
 
Sobus took fourth overall in the 1-mile run as he finished with a time of 5:13.19. For the women, Kristine Stickey took third (6:08.50) and Sydney Lorentz (6:38.00) took fourth in the 1-mile run.
 
Freshman Jennifer Hantz came in 16^th overall it the women's 400-meter dash (1:15.84) in her first collegiate race. Senior Carlo Fabain took 23^rd overall in the men's 400 with a time of 57.43 and Easton Syvertson came in 25^th at 58.68. Spiller took 33^rd overall with a time of 1:10.97.
 
Freshman Ashlin LaFond ran a solid 2:36.98 to take fourth overall in the 800-meter run while sophomore Austen Duggan took ninth overall with a time of 2:10.20 in the men's 800.
 
Freshman Jennifer Hantz took 26^th overall in her first collegiate race with a time of 31.60 in the women's 200-meter dash. Fabian ran a 25.28 in the men's 200 to take 30^th overall while Max Martin (26.44 • 39^th), Michael Orsatti (26.67 • 43^rd), and Syverston (27.00 • 45^th) ran solid races as well.
 
Taylor Smith finished third overall in the 5000-meter run as she came in at 22:33.73, 15 seconds off of the second-place finisher.
 
LaFond, Smith, Lorentz, and Stickney took third in the women's 4x800-meter relay with a time of 11:50.28.
Hantz took 10^th in the long jump with a distance of 4.11 meters (13' 6.00") while Max Martin took 20^th overall for the men in the same event at 4.93 meters (16' 2.25") and Spiller took 22^nd with a distance of 4.41 meters (14' 5.75").
 
Freshman Brigid Kelly took 22^nd overall in her first collegiate shot put event with a throw of 7.85 meters (25' 9.25").
 
"A couple of weeks ago when we first met I challenged every one of our young men and women to get outside of their comfort zone and to Be Not Afraid in their training and in their competition," remarked Coach Oliver. "Today was a great start in that direction! It was a great day to be a Baron!"