Led by stellar senior performances, the Patriots dug up more medals than a prospector before leaving Lehigh University this past Thursday, December 23^rd. Not to mention the team added two Meet of Champion qualifying performances and over a dozen personal records.

Seniors Nik Ventura and Evan Clark led the way with silver-medal performances. Clark was first with a new personal record of 12’0” in the pole vault that earned him another spot in the Meet of Champions. Later in the meet, Ventura rebounded from a tough outing in the long jump to set a personal record of 41’7.25” in the triple jump and earn his second spot in the Meet of Champions. Senior Noah Wilson showed resilience as well overcoming a few early fouls in the shot put to throw a personal record of 40’01” and capture a fourth-place medal in the finals. Senior Jack Steitz snagged a 6^th place medal with another clearance of 5’6” in the high jump.

New lineup, another medal for the 4x800-meter relay. This time it was Clark leading off the group with a 2:11.06. Senior Pierson Stallings then made his debut in the event with a 2:14.40 as the second leg. Junior James Sexton smashed his previous personal best by over twenty seconds with a 2:14.21. And Steitz battled down the stretch to earn a 2:13.39 as the anchor while securing the team’s bronze medal.

The Distance Medley Relay finished ninth with a strong start by senior Luke Gormley in the 1200 (3:56.28) and junior Joe Sims in the 400 (56.43). Next up, senior Matt Saks had a personal record of 2:26.33 in the 800 while senior Patrick Kleemeier had a monster personal best and broke the five minute-mark anchoring the 1600 in 4:59.28.

Several other individuals had impressive performances for the early season. Senior Cole Kochan gutted out a personal record of 10:21.17 in the 3000-meter race. Junior Nick Ginaldi ran a personal record of 56.40 in the open 400; over a second and a half faster than just two weeks ago. Sophomore Michael Melendez ran a personal best of 25.27 in the 4x200-meter relay while also running 7.82 in the 60.

In the final event of the meet, the 4x400-meter relay earned its way to tenth overall. Sims, competing in his second race of the day, ran a 56.80 as the leadoff leg. Stallings, also in his second race, ran a 58.09 as the second leg. In his only race of the day, freshman Dylan Borden looked smooth and used two consistent laps to clock a 60.09. And finally, Sexton capped off the night with a strong second race and a time of 57.38.