February 8, 2010

RedStorm track teams produce solid performances at Mt. Union

Alliance, Oh. --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's and women's indoor track and field teams produced some solid performances at the Mt. Union College Jim Wuske Invitational on Saturday. This was a non-scoring meet. 

Senior Chris Woodfork (Chillicothe, OH) won the 200-meter event and hit the qualifying "B" standard for the NAIA Indoor National Meet in the process. He timed out at 22.51 in the 200. Woodfork also finished 6^th in the 55-meter dash (6.62). Sophomore Lucas Murphy (Grove City, OH), after overcoming injuries that took away his freshman season, was finally able to compete in a college meet and made a very strong statement in his debut by winning the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:42.02. Freshman Chris Aldea (Grove City, OH) was runner-up to Murphy with a time of 2:49.53.

Junior Matt Spencer (Pickerington, OH) was runner-up in the men's 3,000-meter run as he recorded a time of 9:01.92. Spencer also finished 13^th in the 1-mile run (4:47.78) Red-shirt freshman Nick Wilson (Fleming, OH) ran 5^th in the 3,000 (9:10.26). The men's 4 x 400-meter relay team of Aldea, senior Randy Cook (Logan, OH), Murphy and Woodfork finished sixth with a time of 3:37.03. 

Sophomore Zane Miller (Grove City, OH) was 11^th in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:59.90.

"We had some very nice performances from both our men and our women," said Rio Grande head coach Bob Willey. "Chris did a great job and hit the "B" standard in the 200. We went 1-2 in the 1,000. It was great to see Lucas get to run in his first college meet and he did a great job."

Rio will be busy this weekend with competitors at three different sites. On Friday (February 12) some of the members will be at Kenyon College. On Saturday (February 13) Rio heads to Bowling Green for the All-Ohio Indoor Championships and Sunday (February 14) some of the team members will compete at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN.