McClay leads Rio men to 10th place finish at Shamrock Invite
Rio Grande Sports Information
CONWAY, S.C. - Chase McClay posted a win and established a trio of personal-best marks to lead the University of Rio Grande men's track and field team to a 10th place finish in the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational, which closed out its three-day run on Saturday at the Coastal Carolina Track and Field.
McClay, a senior from McDermott, Ohio, won the men's 400-meter Open with a personal-best time of 50.74.
He also placed ninth in the 400-meter hurdles Collegiate division with a new PR mark of 57.37 and was 27th in the 200-meter Collegiate division with a personal-best time of 22.40.
As a team, Rio Grande finished with 34 points for 10th place in the 33-team field.
"We competed against some very, very good NCAA DI and DII competition," said Rio Grande head coach Matt Paxton. "This meet is a huge deal every year with teams from many states and Canada. For the level of competition we faced, I thought we crushed it."
Host Coastal Carolina University won the meet with 139.5 points, while the University of South Carolina (109 pts.) and North Carolina State University (78.5 pts.) rounded out the top three.
Rio Grande had two Top 10 finishers in two other events.
Senior Kyle Lightner (Peebles, OH) took second place honors in the 800-meter run by finishing in 1:56.75, while freshman freshman Ashton Beverly (Chillicothe, OH) was sixth in the same race with a personal-best mark of 1:57.48.
Beverly also established a new personal record of 4:25.12 to finish seventh in the Collegiate 1-Mile Run. Junior Danuel Persinger (Bidwell, OH) finished directly in front of him for sixth place with a personal-best mark of 4:22.83.
The RedStorm had four other Top 10 individual performances in the meet as sophomore Tyler Jenkins (Barnesville, OH) took third in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 31:24.64; freshman Victor Day (Pedro, OH) was fifth in the high jump with an effort of 1.78m (5'10"); freshman Rowen Gerlach (New Haven, WV) placed seventh in the shot put with a heave of 14.24m (46'8-3/4"); and freshman Kasy Science (Marietta, OH), who finished seventh with a personal record time of 9:00.40 in the 3,000-meter run.
Jenkins missed the "B" qualifying standard for the NAIA Outdoor Championships by just four seconds in his first-ever 10K run.
Rio's 4x800 relay unit - comprised of Lightner, Beverly, Jenkins and Persinger - also placed second in a time of 7:55.28.
"We were second in the 4x800 to South Carolina from the SEC," said Paxton. "We were stride for stride with them until the third leg when we had to double back Tyler from the 10k. That's a very big ask to hang with an SEC 800 runner when you are a 10k guy who'd put in six hard miles of racing already."
The RedStorm had other Top 10 showing and six other personal records established.
Senior Haden Karshner (Circleville, OH) took 10th place in the discus throw with a toss of 41.24m (135'3"), while freshman Zachary Whitley (Wheelersburg, OH) was 17th in the mile run with a new PR time of 4:58.12 and freshman Nate Taylor (Corning, OH) was 18th in the 800-meter run with a new personal-best mark of 2:16.51.
Also setting new personal records were Day, who placed 13th in the triple jump at 12.51m (41'0.50") - nearly two feet better than his previous mark; sophomore Daunevyn Woodson (Charleston, WV) in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.50; and freshman Brayden Adams (Ironton, OH), who had new PR marks in both the 200-meter dash (24.63) and the 400-meter run (56.07).
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action next Friday and Saturday at the Montreat College Open in Montreat, N.C.