LYNCHBURG, Va. – In their final meet before the Sun Belt Championships, Appalachian State men's track & field competed at the Darius Dixon Invitational, hosted by Liberty, on Friday and Saturday.
There was no scoring in the meet.
Gable Dershem captured the 5,000-meter run in a season-best 14:59.66. His time moved him from 17
th place in the Sun Belt to first heading into the conference championship.
Lawson Benfield was sixth in the event in 15:29.05 and
Luke Bennett placed seventh with a time of 15:31.06.
In the 60-meter hurdles,
Elliott Graves qualified second with a mark of 8.25 seconds. He followed that up with a second-place finish in the finals in 8.24 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay tandem of
De'Shawn Ballard,
Jabari Johnson,
Sean Doyle and Graves placed third in 3:23.70. Johnson also posted a second place finish in the 200-meter dash in 21.60 seconds, with
Brenton Ervin finishing seventh in a season-best 21.83 seconds.
Peter Kenn tied his PR in the weight throw, recording a sixth-place finish with a mark of 53-5.00 (16.28m).
Tyler Lewis also recorded a PR in the triple jump, finishing fifth with a mark of 45-00.25 (13.72m).
In the high jump,
Jordan Dale placed fourth with a mark of 6-4.25 (1.94m) and
Daniel Lauffenburger was sixth also clearing 6-4.25 (1.94m).
The 3,000-meter run saw
Michael Flanagan finish sixth in 8:33.31,
Isaac Benz cross eighth in 8:38.26 and
Ryan Brown place ninth with a time of 8:39.63.
Appalachian State will compete next at the Sun Belt Championships in Birmingham, Ala. On Feb. 18 and Feb. 19. Last season, the Mountaineers placed fifth of eight teams.
