WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Powered by its relays, the Saint Joseph's men's track and field squad took home a sixth-place finish in a field of 42 teams at the 53rd Annual Berkeley Realty Colonial Relays, hosted by William and Mary at Zable Stadium from Thursday, April 5 through Saturday, April 7. The Hawks accumulated 47 points for the meet, with 30 of those points coming from its six relays.
Saint Joseph's was the only program to score in the 4x200m relay, 4x400m relay, 4x800m relay, 4x1500m relay, Distance Medley Relay, and Sprint Medley Relay.
The Hawks earned a trio of silver medals in the relays as SJU's 4x4 of freshman Stephen McClellan, sophomore Justin Moscoe, senior Barren McCoy, and senior Steve Thompson (3:25.92), SJU's DMR of senior Dave Garton, sophomore Trae' Robinson, junior Dylan Eddinger, and sophomore Zach Michon (10:08.09), and SJU's SMR of Moscoe, senior Kenny Evely, senior David Henderson, and Thompson (3:28.51) turned in second-place, eight-point finishes for the Crimson and Gray.
Saint Joseph's 4x8 of senior Dan Ferraiolo, McClellan, Garton, and junior Rory Houston took third in 7:47.11 for six points while SJU's 4x1500 of sophomore John Walker, sophomore Christian Roberts, junior Will Sponaugle, and sophomore Colin Parker (4th, 16:27.76) and SJU's 4x2 of sophomore David Bryant, freshman Sebastian Eaton, sophomore Aaron Lemma, and McCoy (7th, 1:32.26) combined for seven additional points out of the relays.
Walker (8:41.52 PR) and Sponaugle (8:48.76 PR) added fifth- and seventh-place individual finishes in the 3000m to combine for six points. Walker improved upon his previous collegiate-best time in the event (8:48.02), set at the 2017 William and Mary Colonial Relays where he placed 17th, by over six seconds while Sponaugle scored in his first collegiate 3000m race.
Thompson also placed eighth in the open 800m field of 82 in an IC4A-qualifying time of 1:52.03 as the senior scored out of the second section and graduate student Dan Savage took home a sixth-place, three-point performance in the 3000m steeplechase, crossing the finish line in 9:22.59 to just miss IC4A qualification by .59 seconds.
Outside of SJU's point scorers, six total Hawks met individual IC4A-qualifying standards.
In addition to Thompson's IC4A-qualifying performance, Henderson placed 20th in a field of 75 in the open 200m with a collegiate-best time of 21.92, Eddinger joined Thompson in open 800m qualification (1:53.39), and Michon took a 10th-place finish in a 1500m field of 86 with a collegiate-best time of 3:49.15 to meet IC4A standards.
Seniors David Dorsey (30:56.61) and Anthony Morelli (30:57.13) both qualified for IC4As in the 10,000m, crossing in 15th and 16th, respectively. Both veteran distance runners went sub-31:00 for the first times in their collegiate careers to set new PRs in the event; Dorsey's was a PR by over 17 seconds while Morelli's was by over 19 seconds.
Saint Joseph's returns to action at a pair of meets next weekend. The Temple Owls Invitational is set for Friday, April 13 at Temple's Sports Complex in Philadelphia with the start time still to be determined while the Rider Invitational is slated for Saturday, April 14 at Rider's Track and Field Complex in Lawrenceville, N.J., set for an 11:00 a.m. start.
