The Patriots began their final month of the indoor season with some impressive performances at Lehigh University on Saturday, February 5^th.

Senior Nik Ventura showed off his versatility by winning a medal in the field and a medal on the track. Ventura grabbed a fourth-place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 40’4” and a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.14. On the distance side, senior Matt Saks had a five second personal best in the mile with a time of 5:11.70 while senior Cole Kochan had a double- digit personal best of 10:12.22 in the 3000. In the open 800, senior Jack Steitz used a strong second half of the race to run a personal best of 2:08.31 and move to the top of the team Honor Roll in the event. Senior Luke Gormley also earned a personal best in the event with a time of 2:17.40.

Three of the four relay teams earned top ten finishes. The 4x800-meter relay of junior Joe Sims (PR of 2:10.73), senior Evan Clark (2:10.70), senior Patrick Kleemeier (PR of 2:08.77), and junior Josh Daniels (PR of 2:09.16) earned the highest place with a fifth-place medal. The 4x400-meter relay was close behind in an even more competitive field with a sixth-place finish. Kleemeier earned his second personal best of the day with an anchor leg of 53.77 while Sims also snagged his second personal best with a time of 54.94. Clark (54.25) and sophomore Mike Steitz (53.90), who was running his first quarter-mile of the season, completed the relay and earned a Meet of Champion-qualifying mark while remaining in the top twenty in the state. The Distance Medal Relay finished tenth with a gutsy leadoff performance by freshman Jack Kille with a personal best of 3:49.75. Senior Adi Badrinath added his second personal best in as many meets with a PR of 2:22.80 while sophomore Quinton Weber (400-meter leg of 61.59) and senior Pierson Stallings (1600-meter leg of 4:52.85) gave strong efforts to contribute to the result.

Also of note was the performances of sophomores Roman Messina and Michael Melendez. Messina cleared 9’0” in his debut in the pole vault and later added a personal best of 24.86 as the anchor of the 4x200-meter relay. Melendez ran the best leg of the novice 4x400-meter relay with a split of 56.58.

By the end of the day, the team had earned three medals, thirteen personal records, and eight top ten performances.