STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Racing alongside fellow top-seeded teams in Penn State, Virginia, Albany, Cornell, and Princeton, Saint Joseph's sophomore David Henderson, junior Eddison Gulama, junior Torey Doaty, and senior Alec Peabody claimed the 4x400m relay title in 3:11.20, SJU's second-fastest 4x400m relay performance of all time, to lead the Saint Joseph's men's track and field squad at the unscored Fastrack National Qualifier at the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Athletic Complex on Friday evening.
The Hawks edged out Penn State (3:12.60) by 1.40 seconds to win the event in the IC4A-qualifying performance. Henderson, Doaty, and Peabody ran on SJU's school-record 4x400m relay (3:11.12) two weekends ago at Penn State, while Gulama and Doaty ran on SJU's then-school record and now third-fastest 4x400m relay of all time (3:11.22) last season.
Saint Joseph's top-three 4x400m relay performances of all time have been recorded in the past year, and Doaty has raced legs on all three.
Saint Joseph's Distance Medley Relay of senior Quinn Davis, junior Kevin Barry, sophomore Kenny Evely, and freshman John Podles also met IC4A qualification, turning in a time of 10:18.95 for eighth place.
Dan Ferraiolo turned in SJU's lone individual IC4A-qualifying performance as the sophomore cruised to a collegiate-best 800m performance of 1:53.69 to place fourth in a field of 40; the performance was three seconds faster than Ferraiolo's previous season-best performance in the event.
Saint Joseph's turned in a trio of additional top-ten individual performances, led by senior Chris Banks' fourth-place finish (49.66) in the 400m in a field of 34. Graduate student Paul Szulewski took 18.51 seconds off of his season-best 3000m to turn in an eighth place performance (8:29.18) in a field of 29; the time is Szulewski's third-fastest of his collegiate career and fastest since January 2013. Sophomore Collin Crilly placed 10th in the mile (4:19.45) in a field of 29.
Additional Hawks are in action tomorrow at the Monmouth Winter Invitational, to be held at Monmouth's Multi-Purpose AC in West Long Branch, N.J. beginning at 9:00 a.m. Following this weekend's meets, the Hawks will race the 2016 Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships in Kingston, R.I. from February 19-21.
