EASTON, Pa. – Sprinter Chris Banks and middle distance runners Jamie Gentile and Quinn Davis won their respective events to lead the Saint Joseph's men's track and field team to 88 total points for a fourth-place finish at the outdoor season-opening Lafayette 8-Way Invitational on Saturday afternoon. Held at Lafayette's Metzgar Fields Athletic Complex, the meet featured host-school Lafayette, Saint Joseph's, East Stroudsburg, Lehigh, Moravian, Muhlenberg, and Rider. Rider won the meet with 120 points.
Saint Joseph's saw 39 points out of the middle distance group and 30 points from sprinters, followed by SJU's hurdlers (11) and jumpers (8).
Banks led a quartet of Hawks that owned four of the top five slots in the 400m as the sophomore clocked in at 49.58, just .04 seconds off of his outdoor PR, for the 10-point finish. Having run a leg of three of SJU's event-winning relays in his first two indoor seasons and freshman outdoor season at SJU, the individual win marked the first of Banks' collegiate career.
Senior Peter Larmann took second in the 400m in an outdoor personal-record time of 49.58 while rookies Eddison Gulama (50.07) and Kevin Barry (51.75) took third and fifth, respectively, in their first collegiate outdoor meets. The group combined for 26 points, the most of any SJU event of the day.
Gentile has run a leg on five winning relays and, on Saturday, the junior crossed the finish line of the 800m in 1:57.05 to earn his first individual win on the collegiate level. Junior Brady Deckert followed closely behind in 1:57.76 for the silver. The one-two punch combined for 18 points for the Crimson and Gray.
Davis won the 1500m in 4:05.36 for his first collegiate win in the event as the sophomore earned 10 SJU points. Rookie Jimmy Daniels ran his first collegiate outdoor 1500m in 4:11.74, good for sixth place and another point for the Hawks.
Competing in his first outdoor event since May 2012 and his first 3k since March of 2012, graduate student Jon Mazzio kicked off his final outdoor season in good form with a third-place, sixth-point showing in his first ever collegiate outdoor 3k in 8:52.48. Senior Pat Donnelly followed suit just .10 seconds behind Mazzio in 8:52.58 as the duo combined for 10 SJU points.
The Hawks were also represented strongly in the 400H. In his first collegiate hurdles event, freshman Torey Doaty claimed the bronze medal in 55.66 for six points. Senior Derrick Henry (56.05) and junior Matt Sutorius (57.40) claimed fourth and sixth, respectively.
Sophomore Prince Charles Yakubu and senior Mike Yap represented Saint Joseph's in the jumps. In his first collegiate outdoor meet, Yakubu posted a mark of 12.07m in the triple jump to take home a third-place, six-point finish for the Hawks. Yap recorded a long-jump mark of 5.96m for fifth.
The only Hawk on the day to score in two events, Barry added to his fifth-place showing in the 400m with a fourth-place finish in the 200m (23.72).
Saint Joseph's returns to action next weekend at the 49th Annual Colonial Relays down in Williamsburg, Va. The two-day meet will be held from Friday, April 4 to Saturday, April 5 at The College of William and Mary's Zable Stadium.
