HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Saint Joseph's men's track and field team opened the 2014-15 indoor season at the Jack Pyrah Invitational on Saturday afternoon. The meet was hosted by Villanova University at the Haverford College Tennis and Track Center. The Hawks totaled 46 points to place second out of three city teams; host-school Villanova won the meet with 51 points.
Freshman David Henderson and sophomore Torey Doaty led the Hawks with a pair of wins apiece. In his first collegiate race, Henderson took the 300m title in a field of 40 competitors in 35.41 while Doaty earned the 500m win in 1:06.01. Henderson and Doaty then went on to run the third leg and anchor leg, respectively, of the championship 4x400m relay (3:22.82).
Pushing Doaty and finishing second overall in the same 500m heat as his fellow sophomore classmate was Eddison Gulama, who crossed the finish line of his first collegiate 500m in 1:06.19. With Doaty's (1:05.01) and Gulama's (1:05.19) converted times, the sophomore duo qualified for the 2015 IC4A Indoor Championships to be held in March. The 500m standard for the meet is 1:05.20.
Junior Chris Banks and graduate student Peter Larmann ran the first and second legs of that winning 4x400m relay while senior Steve Butenewicz edged out classmate Tyler Gallen in the same 800m heat to claim that event title in 1:57.42. Gallen followed in 1:57.83 for a close second, an impressive performance for his very first collegiate open 800m.
There were additional significant individual successes in the long sprints Larmann (1:07.03) joined Doaty and Gulama in rounding out the top three and freshman Barren McCoy (1:08.37), and sophomore Brandon Ossont (1:10.00 PR) placed fifth and sixth, respectively. Additionally, a pair of new faces in Steve Thompson (1:58.70) and Dan Ferraiolo (2:01.20) took fourth and sixth in the 800m.
Junior Alec Peabody has his sights set on a record-breaking junior campaign, and he opened the indoor season in promising fashion with a pair of versatile performances, claiming second in a field of 34 runners in the 60m (7.02 PR) and placing fifth in the long jump (6.29m).
In a heat that saw four Saint Joseph's, three La Salle, and one unattached middle-distance standouts, the first heat of the 1000m proved to be on of the most exciting races of the afternoon. In the final lap, SJU graduate student Aaron Leskow took a lead and widened it with half of a lap to go. However, Saint Joseph's senior Matthew McGarvey closed in on Leskow as the Hawks' crowd roared in the exciting anticipation of an exciting finish. McGarvey's 2:31.07 beat Leskow's first collegiate 1000m (2:31.08) as the duo checked in with eventual second- and third-place finishes. Sophomore Jack Magee finished third in the second heat in a personal-record 2:33.97 to finish seventh overall for the Crimson and Gray.
The Hawks return to action at the Penn State Indoor Relays on Saturday, January 10 at Penn State University's Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in State College, Pa.
