Adrian, Michigan - The men's track & field team would tally 112.5 points to finish fourth at the WHAC Outdoor Championships. The Saints collected a trio of conference titles and would establish four new school records on the afternoon.
The record setting day began when
Jake Van Tassell won the 110 meter hurdles in a time of 14.31. His effort bettered his previous record and improved his national qualifying mark. Van Tassell added a second record as he placed second in the 400 meter hurdles in a time of 52.13. The time was fast enough to eclipse the automatic qualifier for the national championships. A third record was established as
Nathan Iacona placed third in the 400 meters with a time of 46.99. His time was also an automatic qualifier for nationals. Van Tassell and Iacona would later team up with
Marcus Mitchell and
Jaben Bakker to break the record in the 4x400 meter relay. The quartet's time of 3:14.04 hits the provisional qualifying time for nationals. Mitchell would also add his name to the Aquinas Top Five List as his time of 48.75 in the 400 meters now ranks fourth in AQ history..
Aquinas would also receive conference championship performances from
Brian Langlois and
Ethan Barker. Langlois bettered the field in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (9:27.79), while Barker claimed the top spot in the 5000 meters (15:05.16). The Saints also picked up points from
Shema Reponse (4th - 10:00.76) and
Christian Martinez-Ramos (8th - 10:25.87) in the steeplechase, while
Juan David Hernandez (3rd - 15:36.80),
Will VanderBor (4th - 15:40.01), and
Carson Lafferty (8th - 15:52.16) picked up valuable points in the 5000 meters. Other highlights were turned in by
Zander Masten (1500 meters - 4th place - 4:00.06) and
Jaben Bakker (800 meters - 6th place - 1:53.68).
The field events were led by the performances of
Joe Farage and
Braxton Zenner, who tied for sixth in the men's pole vault. The duo both cleared 13-9.25 on their first attempt. Also scoring points in the field events for AQ was
Wesley Russell (7th - 45-7.25) and
Thomas Bearden (8th - 45-4.5) in the shot put.
Blake Whetstone would clear 6-1.25 to place eighth in the high jump.
The Saints will now prep for last chance meets and the NAIA Outdoor National Championships.
