Point Park men in 1st Place after Day 1 of RSC Outdoor Track & Field Championships

PITTSBURGH -- Point Park University men's track & field is in first place of 12 teams after Day 1 of River States Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday. The Pioneers are hosting the two-day event at the P3R Track & Field Complex at RMU Island Sports Center. 

Point Park scored 68 points on Thursday, which leads second-place Rio Grande (Ohio) with 59 points. IU East is in third place with eight of the 22 total men's events completed. 

Day 2 of the championship begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. in the field and 10 a.m. on the track. Most of the events will be contested on Friday with four men's field events and 10 men's track events still to come. 

Point Park won three events on Thursday to take the lead. All three of those came with NAIA national-qualifying marks, and two of them were RSC Championship records. 

Jakob Blatnik gave the Pioneers a great start to the day placing first in the javelin. The NAIA All-American won by 18 meters over the rest of the RSC competitors with an RSC-record toss of 67.34 meters. That once again hit the NAIA marks as well and moved him up to third in the country with his season best. 

Jannik Windelband won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with an RSC-record time of 9:23.24. That beat his previous school record by half a second and hit the NAIA standard again. 

Akeem Mustapha placed first in the long jump with a leap of 7.18 meters. That career-best mark hit the NAIA B national-qualifying standard. Maxwell Goode earned all-conference honors in that event as well placing second at 6.68 meters. That gave Goode an outdoor PR. 

Chevaughn Fletcher made the podium in third place in both the hammer and javelin. His hammer throw of 46.48 meters earned all-conference honors as did his javelin toss of 49.18 meters. Point Park had four scorers in the javelin with Ben Blahovec (47.47 meters) in fourth and Cooper Lytle (42.09 meters) in eighth. 

Kodi Quimby was another big performer as he qualified for NAIA nationals in the 5,000-meter race walk. Quimby placed fourth in the conference with a time of 26:15. That is a school record and well within the NAIA A national standard. He will be going back to nationals for the second time this year in the event. 

Other points for the Pioneers came from the 4x800 relay coming in fifth with a time of 8:05 and Xavier Tolliver taking sixth in the long jump at 6.36 meters.

Luke McKenna ran 33:20 to lead the Pioneers in the 10,000 meters and finish just outside of the points. Joshua Gosselin was next in 10th followed by John Dyar in 11th. In the steeplechase, Jordan Kullen placed 10th with a PR of 10:36 and Gabe Ebersole was 11th at 10:46. 

Point Park will be well-represented in the finals of the sprints and hurdles that had prelims on Thursday. Kanye Mills won the prelims for the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.12 seconds. Also getting through were Damir Lomax in third (15.53 seconds) and Gavin Glass in fifth (16.15 seconds). 

Juan Barrera led Point Park in both the 100 and 200-meter prelims. He is in second place for the 200 running 22.64 seconds. Damir Lomax at 22.82 seconds qualified for finals in fourth place with Tyler Hare just missing in 10th place. Barrera ran 11.31 in the 100 meters to make finals in fifth place, right in front of Hare at 11.34 for sixth place so far.