WINCHESTER, Va. – The Bridgewater College men's indoor track & field team began the 2023 campaign at the Kaye & JJ Smith Invitational, hosted by Shenandoah, on Sunday.
Michael Smith set a new personal best and finished in second place in the weight throw with a best toss of 17.68 meters (58-0.25). The mark is the second-best in program history trailing only Michael Lotts' heave of 17.91 meters in 2020.
Peter Fulton (16.88 meters), Tony Nesselrodt (14.19 m) and
Jake McNutt (13.96m) all finished in the top 10, as well, in a field of over 25 throwers.
Smith also highlighted a group of seven BC throwers competing in the shot put with a seventh place finish out of nearly 30 competitors. His top mark crossed 13.23 meters (43-5.00).
Anthony Matthews claimed victory in the triple jump by nearly a half meter after leaping 13.22 meters (43-4.5). Matthews and
Kyle Clanton finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the long jump as they each posted a leap of 6.01 meters (19-8.75).
Bridgewater also had a great showing in the high jump as freshman
Mason Lawhorne finished in first place after clearing 1.85 meters (6-0.75), while
Conner Mackey had a best mark of 1.80 (5-10.75) for third place.
Kaegan Avalos also had a top five finish with a mark of 1.75 meters.
In sprints, Clanton qualified for the 60m finals after crossing the finish line with a prelim-best 6.99 seconds and ran the finals in nearly the same time at 7.00 for a third place finish. He took third place in the 200-meter dash after crossing the finish line in 23.204 seconds, which was just one-thousandth of a second behind second place.
Michael Sheets picked up a top-10 finish with a time of 23.87, which was good for seventh overall.
In distance events,
Bennett Cupps paced the Eagles in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:05.44 for second place, while
Calvin Hulleman finished in third four seconds behind in his first collegiate track meet.
The 4x400 meter relay team of Sheets,
Trey Birchett,
Cy Alderman and Clanton picked up a third-place finish, while the 4x800 meter relay squad featuring Hulleman,
Ryder Rose,
Caleb Bradley and
Anthony Cadle placed in the top half of the field in fourth.
The Eagles return to action this coming weekend at the Finn Pincus Invitational, hosted by Roanoke on Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21.
