Tartans Take the Sixth Annual Battle of the Obelisk

(CLEVELAND, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's indoor track and field team traveled to Cleveland Ohio on Saturday to compete against Case Western Reserve in the sixth annual Battle of the Obelisk. The men swept two events on the track and one in the field to beat the Spartans 82-45.

Freshman Andrew Chang (Fairfax, Va./W.T. Woodson) led the first-year runner sweep in the 55-meter hurdles.  He crossed the line in first in 8.07 while Don Boyer (Dover Foxcroft, Maine/Foxcroft Academy) finished in 8.11 and Matthew Sheh (Denver, Colo./Cherry Creek) stopped the clock at 8.35.

Chang also grabbed two other first place titles.  He leaned over the line in 6.73 seconds in the 55-meter dash and again crossed the line ahead of the competition in 23.41 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

In the one mile run senior Kenneth Murphy (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) grabbed first-place with a time of 4:31.65.  Freshman newcomer Curtis Watro took second and senior distance runner Josh Newby finished in third with times of 4:34.29 and 4:35.15, respectively. 

Senior Zachary Erra-Hernandez (Las Cruces, N.M./Onate) had a season-best throw of 15.42 meters in the shot put leading the Tartans to sweep the event.  Junior Gino Pilato (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield Area) grabbed second-place with a toss of 14.03 meters and to finish the sweep senior Nathan Cheek (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) threw 13.82 meters.

Additional first-place finishes on the track that led the Tartans to victory were from junior Thomas Vandenberg (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) in the 400-meter dash, sophomore Marc-Daniel Julien in the 800-meter run, freshman Matthew Seifu (Silver Spring, Md./Sidwell Friends) in the LJ, junior Michael McDermott in the high jump, the Distance Medley Relay, and the 4x400-meter relay.

The Tartans next competition will be on Saturday, February 8 at Denison University.