Tartans Win Six Events at Lid-Lifter Invitational

(GRANVILLE, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's track and field won the Lid-Lifter Invitational held at Denison University on Saturday, January 26 in a field comprised of five teams.  The Tartans ended the day with 177 team points with Washington & Lee, the second-place team, tallying 96 points.

In the two throwing events, the Cardinal and Gray swept the top three places.  Junior Nathan Cheek (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) threw a distance of 15.71 meters in the weight throw to bring home top honors.  Senior Patrick Robinson (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) placed second followed by junior Zachary Erra-Hernandez (Las Cruces, N.M./Onate) with throws of 15.03- and 14.49- meters, respectively.

Erra-Hernandez won the shot put after throwing 14.74 meters.  Sophomore Gino Pilato (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield Area) placed second with a throw of 13.95 meters while Cheek had a toss of 13.39 meters to place third.

Sophomore Mike McDermott (Seekonk, Mass./La Salle Academy) recorded a career-best jump of 4.25 meters in the pole vault, placing first.  Senior Daniel Cardenas Rivero (Upper Arlington, Ohio) cleared a height of 3.95 meters in the pole vault to record points for the Tartans with a third-place finish.  Junior Mike Standish (Washington, Pa./Trinity) also turned in a third-place finish as he cleared the bar with a height of 1.67 meters in the high jump.

Carnegie Mellon turned in its third sweep of the day when sophomores Thomas Vandenberg (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) and Douglas O'Connell (Rye, N.Y./Fordham Prep) along with freshman Marc-Daniel Julien (Skokie, Ill./Niles West) were the top finishers in the 800-meter race.  Vandenberg crossed in 1:56.61 followed by O'Connell with a career-best time of 1:57.22 and Julien with a time of 2:01.32.

Senior Daniel Ching (Trout Valley, Ill./The Culver Academies) crossed the finish line with a time of 8.74 seconds to win the 60-meter hurdles and then the Tartans 4x400-meter relay team finished the Tartans top performances for the afternoon.  The team of senior Ben Nealy (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J.), O'Connell, Standish and Vandenberg recorded a season-best time of 3:31.83.

The Tartans had two other second-place finishes throughout the meet as junior Brock Allen (Wester Chester, Pa./Unionville) crossed the line with a time of 4:24.33 in the mile and sophomore Eamon Cullinane (Hampton, N.H./Winnacunnet) crossed with a career-best time of 9:14.55 in the 3,000-meter run.

The Tartans will be in action again on Saturday, February 2 when they travel to Case Western Reserve University.