Photos by Liz Berie
The Point Park men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the outdoor season at the Juniata College Invitational on Saturday.
For the men, sophomore jumper Shaun Berry placed first in the triple jump weeks after competing at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Indoor National Championship. He had a leap of 13.28 meters to win the event.
Berry placed in the top nine in all three jumps at the meet.
Freshmen jumpers Andre Lowery and Michael Morris also started off on a high note in the high jump. Lowery placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 6.13 meters and Morris placed eighth with a leap of 6.00 meters.
The highlight of day for men’s track was when freshmen mid-distance runner Desmond Marrow broke the school record in the 800-meter. Throughout the race, freshman mid-distance runner Andre Bennett led until Marrow passed him.
“Even though it was pretty cold outside, I was happy that I finished the day off healthy,” Bennett said after the meet. “It came down to who wanted it more, so kudos to Desmond for breaking another school record.”
Marrow placed fifth in the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 1.21 seconds, and Bennett took sixth place with a time of 2 minutes, 1.63 seconds as he broke the previous record from last year’s inaugural season.
“Even though I didn’t reach my personal goal, I was perfectly fine with my time,” Marrow said after the meet.
In the 1,500-meter, sophomore mid-distance runner Chris Hunt broke the previous school record by placing fifth out of a total of 41 runners with a record-breaking time of 4 minutes, 13.37 seconds. For the 400-meter hurdles, freshman hurdler Bryan Partika had a record-breaking time of 3 minutes, 33.01 seconds and finished in fourth place.
“It wasn’t that hard for me,” Partika said in an interview after the meet. “I don’t view it as an accomplishment. The real accomplishment will come when the weather gets nicer and the times go down.”
The men’s 4×400 relay team had a record-breaking time of 3 minutes, 33.01 seconds and finished off in fourth place. The group included Marrow, Partika, sophomore mid-distance runner Alexander Vaughn and sophomore sprinter JaQuan Lavender.
Kiana Daley highlighted the women’s day in the field as she broke three school records. She placed second in the shot put, second in the discus and seventh in the hammer throw.
Senior Vanessa Sprando continued the throwers’ strong performance with a third place finish in the shot put. Freshmen thrower Annelise Kephart broke the record for javelin with a ninth-place worthy throw of 27.12 meters.
On the track, the 4×100 relay team placed first with a time of 50.45 seconds. The team consisted of sophomore sprinters Chereese Langley, Amber Brown and Jahniah McAllister and freshman sprinter Onon Kadima.
Three sprinters placed in the Top 10 of the 100-meter dash. Kadima finished third, Langley sixth and freshman Ebony Davis 10th.
In the distance races, sophomore distance runner Katie Guarnaccia finished in third place for the 1,500-meter with a time of 5 minutes, 6.70 seconds. In the 5,000-meter, freshman distance runner Kara Rohlf was 14th with a time of 4 minutes, 29.52 seconds.
“It’s nice to see that I’m starting out my season running that time,” Rohlf said after the meet.”
Partika, Davis and Daley were all named conference athletes of the week.
Both teams will return to action Saturday, March 26 at the Cal U Early Bird Invitational in California, PA.
