BOONE, N.C. -  Juniors Chris Moen and Sean Soderman traveled to the Akron Invitational prepared to run fast against the high-profile track and field teams in attendance, but neither one of them foresaw themselves striding past an Appalachian State University school record.

Soderman began the meet Friday night with the 5,000-meter run, where he and sophomore Will Raby battled with a pair of Ohio State runners to shatter the school record. Even though both runners beat the previous record of 14:37.14 set by Brad Dodson, Soderman, who ran the race in a time of 14:32.99 and finished third, officially overtook the twenty-year old record. Raby finished seconds behind his fellow teammate to claim fifth in a time of 14:36.91.

Moen ran out of his mind in the 3,000-meter run as he smashed a record set last season by Patrick Morgan by nearly 16 seconds. The impressive feat was good enough to finish second in the event, and it puts him 11 seconds off the NCAA Division I automatic qualifying time.

Along with a pair of record-breaking showings, the Mountaineers had 11 personal best performances during the two-day event.

Two fellow all-Southern Conference cross country runners in Alex Taylor and Brandon Hudgins also had striking performances, but theirs were in the mile. The duo pushed one another throughout the whole race until Taylor edged out his teammate to claim fourth in a time of 4:06.46, which moved him to third on ASU's all-time list. Hudgins finished milliseconds later (4:06.65) to earn fifth place in the meet and on the school's all-time chart.

Sprinter Dennis Moore claimed first in the 60-meter dash, but it was in the preliminary race that his speed truly showed as he ran a 6.82, which moved him to third all-time in Appalachian history. Justin Thomas also had a quick prelim race, as he ran a time of 6.90 to jump to seventh all-time; Thomas finished fifth in the event.

Moore also received fifth in the Gold 200m, and Thomas was the runner-up in the Blue division.

Darius Purcell showed once again that he has springs for legs with his clearance of 6-10.75 in the high jump. The impressive leap was good enough to earn him second overall.

In his first multi-event competition of the year, senior Jake Goodchild  decided he would set a new personal best by scoring 4,700 points in the heptathlon. The total puts him tied for second on the Black and Gold's all-time chart with Josh Cox. During the strenuous competition, Goodchild finished seventh overall and set one new personal best mark, where he ran a time of 2:51.37 in the 1,000m.

The Mountaineers now look towards the App Pre-Conference meet next Friday at the Holmes Center, where it will have one last chance to fine-tune everything before the SoCon Indoor Championships, which is February 26-27 in Clemson, S.C.