Spartans Bring Home Personal Bests from Maryland

Grey skies with a steady drizzle set the tone for Saturday's Towson University Track & Field Invitational held at Johnny Unitas Stadium, however, the Spartans were able to shine some positive light on the otherwise gloomy day.   

The women's team saw success in the first meet of the season as junior thrower Jeanette Gibson placed 10th overall in the shot put with a throw of 10.50 meters (34-05.50 feet).  For the discus it was Gibson's first time throwing in roughly a year, and she threw 31.18 meters (102-03 feet), which placed her 13th.  Freshman Chelsea Klinger successfully doubled in the Long Jump and the 400 meters.  Starting with the long jump, she hit the board running and hit a personal best mark of 4.28 meters (14-00.50 feet).  She then came back to race the 400 meter in a personal best time of 1:11.14.  Junior Ashley Toscano raced the 200 meter dash in a time of 29.60 placing her 21st.  Sarah Callagy ran a noteworthy race in the 1500 meter run starting off the season looking solid.  She ran a time of 5:31.34, which placed her 29th out of a 37 woman field.  Freshman Lisa Brevogel pushed through the 5000 meters, a grueling 3.1 miles-12 and a half laps-and ran a noteworthy time of 22:24.16.

On the men's side we had three Spartans in the 1500 meter race.  In the first heat, Freshman Matt Muniz ran a phenomenal race running a personal best of 4:49.44.  Senior Drew Gangemi had the performance of the week during the second heat of the 1500 meters.  In the first two laps Gangemi was forced to the outside, but with 400 meters to go, Gangemi gritted his teeth and clocked a time of 4:28.70.  Junior Einar Brissing raced in the first heat and had to persevere through a leg injury, but finished in 4:11.40 placing him 9th out of 24 athletes.  Chris Muniz was able to add another gold to his collection of victories in the 400 meter dash.  Winning the race by nearly a second, Muniz clocked a time of 49.45.  Sophomore Dan Nilsen ran a gutsy race in the 800 meter dash as he showed his speed taking the first lap in 63 seconds.  He finished the race in a career best of 2:19.37.  Senior Elmer Eckert closed the day for the Spartans in the 5000 meter run.  Eckert led the lead pack of about 5 runners for the first two miles.  Fighting to the end, Eckert clocked a time of 16:16.55, which is a phenomenal time to begin the season.

The Spartans head to the University of Pennsylvania next weekend.