Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Results
May 16, 2019 - With one final competitive opportunity before sending its qualifiers off to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, the North Central College men's track and field team strengthened bids for the national meet in a handful of events as the Cardinals hosted the Gregory Invitational Wednesday and Thursday at Jay and Dot Buikema Track.
Taking advantage of ideal weather conditions which have proven rare this spring, North Central won three events and emerged with some possible additional championship entries after a series of season- and personal-best performances.
Kyle LeBlanc won Wednesday's high jump competition with a season-best clearance of six feet, nine inches, putting him into a tie for 11th place in the event nationwide. LeBlanc earned All-America honors at the 2018 outdoor championships in the high jump.
Alex Makrounis capped off Wednesday's competition with a first-place finish in the 10,000-meter run (31:20.66), while the 4-by-400-meter relay team of
Michael Stanley,
Maceo Findlay,
Gavin Cernek and
Peyton Piron clocked a season-best time of 3:11.85 (seventh-fastest in the program's history) to place second. Washington University in St. Louis, which finished in front of the Cardinals in 3:09.93, is the only Division III relay squad with a faster time than North Central's team this season.
Piron added an individual win in the 400-meter dash on Thursday (48.03), while
Michael Anderson finished third in the 1,500-meter run (3:51.99) and
Kyle Hilton did the same in the 110-meter hurdles (15.15). Anderson's time is a personal best and ranks him 20th on the national Division III list.
Izaiah Webb tacked on a third-place finish in the pole vault (15'2.25") on Wednesday.
Placing fourth for the Cardinals was
Liam Doran in the javelin throw (165'3"), while fifth-place showings came from
Matt Norvell in the 5,000-meter run (14:42.34),
Kendall Johnson in the triple jump (45'1") and
Brendon Sebastian in the 800-meter run (a personal-best 1:52.68).
This year's outdoor national championship will be contested Thursday through Saturday at the SPIRE Sports Complex in Geneva, Ohio. Qualifiers will be announced on Saturday at ncaa.com.
