Men's Track Completes Another Strong Weekend
Men's Track and Field / 01.24.22
MARIETTA, Ga. --- The Life University men's track program closed out a busy weekend successfully, competing in the Vanderbilt Invitational Friday and Saturday in Nashville, Tenn. and the KMS Invitational in Birmingham, Ala. Sunday where the team combined to produce three NAIA B Standards and two A Standards.
Starting the weekend in Nashville in a largely NCAA DI field,
Zac Wright-Fisher did a great job in the distance, hitting a B Standard in the 5000m race with a time of 15:08.04 to finish 10th in the 17 man field. The other B Standard earned at the event came via
Michael Panzarino in the heptathlon, earning a score of 4436 to finish in fifth place. Panzarino's heptathlon total is the ninth best in the NAIA currently.
Sameer Mateen also put together a strong performance in the 200m dash, finishing ninth out of 30 finishers with a time of 21.99--just missing on a B Standard.
Sunday was a good day for the men as they earned a pair of A Standards at the KMS Invitational and another B Standard. The first A Standard came from Mateen in the 60m dash where he won the event with a time of 6.84. His time currently stands as the eighth best in the NAIA. Mateen also took part in the other A Standard earned, a blisteringly fast 4x400m relay of 3:16.81 which was not only the fastest at the event, but is also the fastest in the NAIA to this point in the season. The other members of the 4x400m relay team were
Ngoni Chadyiwa,
Venord Burrows, and
Patrick Faust. Chadyiwa, like Mateen, also took part in two standards, winning the 400m dash with a B Standard time of 49.07. Life U competitors claimed three other top ten spots in the rest of the events at the KMS Invitational. Venord Burrow finished third, just a little over a second behind Chadyiwa in the 400m dash with a time of 50.49, while
Patrick Faust took the other two top finishes in the mid-distances, claiming third in the 600m with a time of 1:22.66 and seventh in the 800m with a time of 1:59.06.
The Running Eagles have the next weekend off, returning to action for a home meet on Friday, February 4th.
