Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Results
Jan. 19, 2018 - Taking advantage of opportunities to score large amounts of points in its stronger events, the North Central College men's track and field team emerged victorious in its first home meet of the 2018 indoor season on Friday, winning the six-team Cardinal Opener at Al B. Carius Track.
The 10th-ranked Cardinals put up a total of 227.50 points to put themselves well clear of the competition. The No. 12-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater finished second with 181 points, while the fifth-ranked University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh scored 109.50.
North Central won six of the 16 contested events, sweeping the top eight spots in the 5,000-meter run and the top seven places in the 3,000-meter event.
Dhruvil Patel led the field to the finish line in the 5,000, clocking a time of 14 minutes, 34.96 seconds which currently ranks him third nationwide among NCAA Division III competitors.
Nolan McKenna followed in second place (14:40.62) and
Matt Norvell finished third (14:42.31).
Steve Sismelich claimed the win in the 3,000 (8:44.92), while Gabe Pommier came in second (8:53.53) and
Jake Jaskowiak placed third (8:56.25). The Cardinals claimed the top four places in the 400-meter dash, as
Peyton Piron won in 49.64 seconds and was followed across the line by
Daniel Spaccapaniccia (50.35), Ben Nordman (50.91) and
Gavin Cernek (51.15), and Piron, Spaccapaniccia and Nordman also teamed with
Maceo Findlay to win the 4-by-400-meter relay in 3:21.42.
The hosts collected a 1-2 finish in the high jump as well, as
Adam Poklop's clearance of six feet, seven inches clinched the win and Nick Janca secured second place at 6'5", and the Cardinals' distance medley relay team of
Alec Beutel, Brendon Sebastian, Caleb Robertson and Stuart Todd-Middleditch won in 11:14.08.
Chris Buechner placed second in the 800-meter run ( 1:57.41) for North Central, which also got third-place showings from Findlay in the 60-meter dash (7.13),
Dylan Kuipers in the pole vault (15'3") and Kendall Johnson in the triple jump (43'8").
The Cardinals travel to Wisconsin-Whitewater for the Squig Converse Invitational on Friday, Jan. 26, with competition scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m.
