The men’s and women’s indoor track teams competed at the SPIRE Mid West Track and Field Open in Geneva, Ohio this past weekend. For those that do not know, the SPIRE Institute is home to an Olympic training center for athletes in secondary and post-secondary schools. The best of the best train here, and the best of the Behrend teams were able to find success against stiff competition. The competition took place on January 26th and 27th, about a week after the Carnegie Mellon Invitational took place at the same location, and consisted of numerous Division II and Division III schools.

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As for the men’s team, they had a lot of standout performances and were right in the thick of things with the rest of the competition. After setting a school record last week in the 5000-meter run, freshman Zachary Wortman broke another school record, this time in the 5K at a clip of 15:34.17, finishing 17th overall. The 4x800 and 4x400 relay teams qualified for ECAC Championships with a second and ninth place finishes, respectively. Kyle Grimm and Jack Georgetson jumped 4.28 meters in the pole vault to earn an invitation to ECACs as well. Grant Rogers qualified for ECACs in the 200 meter dash at a time of 22.84 and placed in the top 15 in the long and high jump events.

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The women's team had their time to shine as well. Haley Yenchik was able to set a school record in the pole vault at a height of 3.52 meters, good enough for an ECAC Championship qualification alongside Gabriella Loeffler, who qualified in the same event. Rachel Pell also set a school record in the 400 meter at a clip of 58.78 seconds. The 4x400 relay team ran a time of 4:08.45, again good enough to qualify for ECACs. The women’s team additionally had ECAC qualifiers last week in the Carnegie Mellon Invitational. Riley Crissman took home a school record in the 300 meter run at a time of 1:44.19 and placed eighth. Pell qualified in the 800 meter and 60 meter hurdles as well.

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The Behrend track and field teams will travel to Mount Union to take on the Raiders this Saturday, February 3 at 10 a.m.