By Alyssa Gehris, Photography editor
Susquehanna men’s and women’s track and field competed at the Mansfield University Under the Lights Invitational on Saturday, April 21.
The men’s team earned five first place wins for the River Hawks and the women’s team had a total of 15 top-five finishes in the competition on Saturday.
Sophomore Robert Marks beat his personal record and won first in the javelin throw with a throw of 63.17 meters for his second throw of the day.
Marks’ throw placed him in the fourth-place spot for all the all-time Susquehanna ranking, second place in the Mideast region and first in the Landmark Conference.
Marks also was named Landmark Athlete of the Week for his throw that ranked eighth in the country.
MADE HIS MARK — Sophomore Robert Marks was named Landmark Athlete of the Week with his performance.
Sophomore Dylan Heisey earned first place for the discus throw at 38.77 meters and senior Stephen Vlavianos placed second at 37.40 meters. Senior Joshua Brown won first place in the shot put with a throw of 12.96 meters with sophomore Jason Card in second, Heisey in third, sophomore Michael Evans in fourth, and senior Ryan Straub-Fisher in fifth. Brown also placed third in the hammer throw and senior Ryan Bertsch placed fifth.
The men’s 4×100 team of sophomore Andrew DeBastiani, Paul Jones, Tanner Haydt and Kyle Entin won first place as well as the 4×400 relay team of junior Kaleb Waiwada along with Jones, Haydt, and Entin.
For the 100-meter race the river hawks had four runners place in the top six. Sophomore Darian Redmond placed third, freshman Donte Dobbins placed fourth, DeBastiani placed fifth and junior Justin Meyer placed sixth.
In other top placements, Jones also placed third in the 400 and Redmond also placed sixth in the 200. Junior Ciaran Fisher finished in second and Waiwada finished third for the 800-meter race.
For the hurdles, senior Andrew Farrell placed second in the 110-meter hurdles and freshman Lance Hoffer placed third in the 400-meter hurdles.
For the women’s team, junior Tylinn Bitner won first place for the hammer throw at 33.29 meters and was the only throw of the day past 33 meters.
Freshman Kristen Blair took second in the javelin throw at 29.98 meters. Freshman Ryleigh Edmonds placed fifth in the javelin throw and fourth in the pole vault.
Sophomore Samantha Reed won third in both 100-meter and 200-meter races.
Junior Mackenzie Apple placed third in the 100-meter hurdles and freshman Rachel Seiler placed fifth in the 400-meter hurdles. Sophomore Alysa Davey-Bostic placed third and junior Sarah Rinaldi placed fourth in the high jump.
The 4×400 relay team of senior Kailyn Reilly, sophomore Alexa Pietrini, freshman Kate Ross and freshman Marissa Kleman took second place and finished with a time of 4:29:42.
Sophomore Toni Alexander tied her personal record for the 200-meter race to place in fifth also beat her personal record in the 400-meter race to place in fourth at the meet.
Sophomore Maya Khanna placed fourth in the triple jump at 9.97 meters.
The River Hawks will compete next at the Paul Keiser Classic held at Shippensburg University on Saturday, April 28 in preparation for the championships May 5 and 6 at Elizabethtown College.