Results
Gainesville, FL – The Patriots had a strong start to the NAIA Indoor Championships in Florida on Friday, making the finals in four different events. Five individuals ran qualifying times to start the day, followed by a pair of UC's relay squads earning a spot in their respective final race.
The first Patriot to make the finals on day one was Dillan Melchiore who was the top finisher in the 3K racewalk with a time of 13:12.10. Cole Bennett and Lucien Beardsley also cemented their spots in the finals with finishes of 13:46.31 and 13:20.42 respectively. The trio will be right back on the track tomorrow morning for the finals in this event.
A pair of Pats followed suit with qualifying times in the 5K run. Luca Madeo and Serhii Shevchenko put together automatic qualifying races with top-four finishes in their respective heats. Madeo ran a 14:44.37 while Shevchenko ran a 14:39.07 to advance to the finals on Saturday. Ludovico Vaccari also raced in the 5000m, finishing in 15:02.12 for 15th in the prelims.
The first Patriot relay team to earn a spot in the finals was the 4x400 squad of Kerrington Eubanks, Roderick Soto, Grayson Rahbany, and Jaysaun Smith. A great opening leg from Eubanks put the Pats ahead before Soto took over for the second leg. Rahbany then took the baton for the third leg, passing the baton to Smith who finished the race with a combined time of 3:13.28 for a new school record.
UC's DMR followed with a qualifying performance of their own with a combined finish of 9:58.83. Noah Loser began the race in the 1200m before Eddie Van Wyk took over for the 400m section. Van Wyk passed the honors to Maddox Knight for the next 800m, followed by Youssef Asslouj who anchored the Pats to a qualifying finish.
The only race on day one that did not see a Patriot qualify for the finals was the 4x800 relay, where UC's squad came up five hundredths of a second short of the last spot in the finals. Andrew Yeary and Reed Richardson ran the opening legs before Ryan Ehrler took over for the third. He then passed the baton to Max Young who crossed the finish in 7:40.11. This earned ninth overall, with eighth place running a 7:40.06 for the last qualifying position.
Nigel Steenwinkel and Seth Massie began the heptathlon on Friday. Steenwinkel started the meet with a bang, running a 6.97 to win the 60m dash. He sits in 10th overall with 2708 points after day one, awaiting the pole vault, 60m hurdles, and the 1K tomorrow to finish the event. Massie scored 2667 points through the five events on day one, placing fourth in the long jump behind a 6.62m leap.
Cumberlands will look to build off their day one performances tomorrow for the second day of competition. They will start with the 3K racewalk finals at 11:15 AM where Melchiore, Bennett, and Beardsley are looking to score UC's first team points of the championship.
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