The Emory University men's track & field team holds down fourth place through the first day of the UAA Championships in Chicago.
With seven events scored the Eagles notched a score of 44 points which has them just off of the podium in fourth place with 14 events left to be scored. The Eagles turned in four All-UAA performances on Saturday including one individual UAA title. In first place is No. 15 ranked Carnegie Mellon with 67.50 points while WashU trails narrowly having racked up 65.50 points.
Freshman Henry Brandstadter had an incredible Saturday for the Eagles winning his first individual outdoor title as he launched himself 7.44m in the long jump. Brandstadter's distance of 7.44m established a new program record and also stands as the sixth best mark in the nation this season. Sophomore John Zhai also earned All-UAA acclaim in the long jump as he landed a distance of 6.71m to place third in the event.
Junior Kenya Sei turned in the third All-UAA performance for the Eagles as he set a new program best mark in the hammer throw as he tossed a distance of 54.96m which placed second at the meet. The final All-UAA performance for the Eagles came on the track where the 4x800 relay team of junior Dawit Dean, sophomore Ben Zamler, sophomore Patrick Latting and senior Justin Pecore crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 7:48.16 which stands as the fifth fastest time in program history.
Placing fourth in the 10,000m run was senior Brett Lucas who generated five points for the Eagles by crossing the finish line in a time of 30:53.88 which established a new program record for the Eagles. Senior Michael Tiffin scored in two separate events for the Eagles placing fourth in the hammer throw (46.15m) and eighth in the shot put (12.38m). The final scorer on Saturday for the Eagles was sophomore Jonathan Orelowitz who, competing in the 3,000m steeplechase, logged a time of 9:35.84 which was good for sixth place.
The Eagles had a successful day in the preliminary runs as they had ten athletes qualify for the finals across four different events. Dean qualified for the final in the 400m dash as he had the fastest time in prelims at 49.48 seconds. Freshman Bryce Wurster (50.66) and sophomore Tristan Moore (51.31) also qualified for the final in the 400m dash. Sophomore Jackson Price turned in the fastest time in both the 100m dash (10.83) and 200m dash (21.66) on his way to qualifying for the finals in both events. Brandstadter (100m, 11.06), senior Tommy Davis (200m, 22.29) and sophomore Sam Ryba (200m, 22.54) also qualified for the finals.
The last of the finals qualifiers were junior Spencer Watry and sophomore Marcus Cheema who each qualified for the finals of tomorrow's 800m run. Watry turned in the fastest time of all the preliminaries with a 1:53.63 while Cheema placed fifth in prelims at 1:53.89.
The Eagles will return for the final day of the UAA Championships tomorrow morning as they hope to move up in the team standings and record more All-UAA performances.