Men's Track Finishes Fifth at Huntington

HUNTINGTON, IND. -- The Defiance College men's track & field team placed fifth at the Huntington (Ind.) University Invitational in Huntington, Ind.

The Yellow Jackets totaled 51 points place fifth out of six teams.  Grace (Ind.) College captured the team title with 203 points and was followed by host school Huntington in second place with 126 points.  Adrian (Mich.) College rounded out the top three with 107 points.

Defiance had two event winners in sophomore Javier Castillo (Nogales, Ariz./Nogales) in the shot put and junior Joshua Petro (Ocala, Fla./The Villages) in the hammer throw.

Castillo was one of four DC competitors to place in the top-10 in the shot put highlighted by his winning toss of 44' 1.50".  Fellow sophomore James Baranoski, Jr. (Bloomingdale, Mich./Bloomingdale) placed fourth (41' 3.75") and was followed by senior Nick Rath (Defiance) in seventh (40' 6.00").  Rounding out the top-10 performances in the event was sophomore Justin Bergquist (Cincinnati/Northwest) who placed 10th overall (39' 3.75").

Petro had a mark of 163' 2.00" in the hammer to win the event.  Sophomore Andrew Fahler (Wellington) also finished in the top-10 in the event with a sixth-place finish and a distance of 141" 0.00".

The Jackets also posted four top-10 finishers in the discus with Castillo leading the way by placing fourth overall with a mark of 125' 6.00".  DC then took seventh through ninth place with Petro finishing seventh (117' 4.00"), Rath was eighth (114' 5.00") and Bergquist was ninth (113' 8.00"). 

Rath was the top finisher for the Jackets in the javelin throw by finishing 11th overall after a best distance of 113' 2.00".  

The running events were highlighted by three Yellow Jackets who placed in the top-10 in the 100-meter dash led by freshman Vincent Lamonte's (Norwalk) who placed sixth with a time of 11.54 seconds.  Joining him were freshmen Chris Beard (Anthony, Fla./North Marion) and DeVonte' Cravin (Ama, La./Hahnville) who both tied for ninth with identical times of 11.69 seconds.

Cravin also went on to place in the top-10 in the 200-meter dash and posted a time of 24.05 seconds to place seventh overall.

Senior Zach Roush (Nashville, Ind./Brown County) was the lone DC runner in the 3000-meter run and placed eighth after crossing the finish line in a time of 9:46.30.

"We had over 19 "PR's," including a couple of event winners," said Head Coach Ken Ciolek.  "I was really proud of the way the team competed today."

The men's track team will travel to Delaware, Ohio next Saturday (Apr. 15) for the annual All-Ohio Outdoor Championships hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University.  The meet is scheduled to begin at noon.