Outdoor Season Off to a Strong Start
Results
(3/29/08 - Men's Outdoor Track and Field) SAN DIEGO - Four school records fell while a host of personal best times were achieved by the Concordia outdoor track and field team in a 7th place finish at the Point Loma Nazarene Invitational.
For the second-straight week, Nate Winkler posted individual school records in the 100 and 200 meters. A week after posting times of 10.91 and 22.13, respectively, Winkler clocked a new 100 record time of 10.80 before lowering his 200 time to 22.07.
With two records in hand, Winkler was not finished as he ran the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay squad and the second leg of the 4x400 relay. Joined by Ben Coulombe, Michael Leonetti and Rod West in the 4x100, the quartet clocked a school-record time of 42.70. Jarid Rollins stepped in for West in the 4x400 and the team posted a time of 3:30.53.
Coulombe was another Eagle to stake his claim to a school record, this time in the 400 meters. His time of 50.36 was his personal best, his second of the day after posting a individual low time of 22.91 in the 200 meters.
Michael Leonetti continued his strong sprint work by posting two personal best times of his own. He was not far behind Winkler in the 100 at 11.20 while coming in just behind Coulombe in the 200 with a mark of 23.12. West was also busy on the day, posting consistent times in both the 100 (11.57) and 200 (23.35) before running the opening leg of the 4x100 relay.
Rollins was another Eagle to grab a personal best time on the day. His time of 2:00.54 was his individual best and was good enough to take top honors in his heat. Joseph Lopez made his first appearance for the Eagles in almost a year, joining Rollins in the 800 with a time of 2:03.80.
Stretching out to the 1,500 meters, the Eagles sent Guillermo Cazares and Ryan Allen out to the track. Cazares posted a personal best time of 4:04.24 to finish third in the race while Allen was close behind in 4:09.80. Tony Pulido rounded out the distance crew with a time of 15:31.66.
The lone field athlete to compete for the Eagles was Chad Smith. With his all-America teammate Paul Castaneda battling illness, Smith took his opportunity to shine and won his first event since his prep days with an automatic qualifying mark of 53'0". He will now join the rest of the Eagles who have already qualified for the 57th annual NAIA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, May 22-24 at Ralph Korte Stadium on the campus of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Ill.
Concordia returns to the track this Saturday, April 5 as the team competes in the Pomona-Pitzer Relays in Claremont.