Tartans Place First at Muskingum, Rich Tops Heptathlon Field at Bucknell Open

(NEW CONCORD, Ohio) — The Carnegie Mellon University men's track and field team competed at the Muskie Meet #3 hosted by Muskingum University on Saturday, January 27, earning first place with a score of 153.5 points while senior Thomas Rich traveled to the Bucknell Open and Multi on Friday to compete in the heptathlon.

Rich's Performance at Bucknell:

• Rich won the heptathlon with a school-record score of 4,991 points. This beat his previous school record by more than 600 points.
• The senior won the shot put, high jump, and 60-meter hurdles with personal-best marks in the shot put (12.59m) and high jump (1.99m).
• He placed second in the long jump and third in the 60-meter dash, the pole vault, and the 1,000-meter run. His 60-meter dash time of 7.28 seconds and his pole vault height of 3.73m are both personal-best marks. 

Top Performances on the Track at Muskingum:

• Freshman Christian Brower placed first in the 3,000-meter event with a time of 8:46.55. His teammates junior Seth Williams and freshman Nathan Massie tied for third place with a time of 8:52.21.
• Freshman Matthew Short placed second in the mile run with a time of 4:16.84. Junior Colin McLaughlin earned third with a time of 4:20.77 and junior Eamon Brady earned fifth with a time of 4:23.17.
• The Tartans swept the top four spots of the 800-meter event. Senior Andrew McGovern placed first with a time of 1:55.18, senior Leland Davies placed second with a time of 1:58.02, junior Sean Dutton placed third with a time of 1:58.93, and sophomore Saaketh Nandakumar placed fourth with a time of 2:01.69.
• Freshman Markos Koukoularis placed fifth in the 1,000-meter event with a time of 2:38.99.
• Freshman Matthew Yu placed fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.93.
• The 4x400-meter relay of sophomore Jeremy Ocloo, Dutton, Davies, and McGovern turned in a first-place performance in a time of 3:27.93.

 Top Performances in the Field at Muskingum:

• Clearing the 1.92m mark, junior Sebastian Sanso placed third in the high jump event.
• Freshman Ryan Handron placed second in the pole vault event, clearing the bar at 4.51m. Freshman Soloman Glavach cleared the bar at 4.36m, earning him fourth place.
• Junior Luke Blackwell placed third in the triple jump event with a mark of 13.32m.
• Senior Bailey O'Malley placed second in the shot put with a distance of 15.09m.
• Junior Cody Breidenbach placed third in the weight throw event, with a distance of 15.48m.

Up Next:

• The Tartans will travel to Case Western Reserve University for the Battle for the Obelisk on Saturday, February 3.