Senior Mark Leininger ran to his first outdoor title of the season in the 5,000-meter run as AU visited Annapolis, Md. March 23 for the Navy Invitational.
Leininger registered an IC4A qualifying time of 14:31.70. Junior John Pope placed third with 14:41.96 while senior Mark Allen and sophomore Tom Woermer finished seventh (15:22.83) and eighth (15:28.89), respectively.
Sophomore Nick Regan and freshman David McCombs also recorded top-four finishes for AU in the 1,500-meter run, with Regan coming in third with a time of 4:04.84 and McCombs placing fourth in 4:07.35. Freshmen David Hamilton and Max Hamilton placed fifth (1:59.27) and sixth (2:00.92) in the 800-meter run.
Both Hamiltons, in addition to freshman Aidan O’Malley and junior Constantine Matsakis, competed for the men’s 4x400-meter relay team as well. The squad closed out the top-five finishers for the Eagles, earning a time of 3:36.13.
As a team, AU finished fourth in the standings while Navy won the event with 279 points.
Prior to the Navy Invitational, the Eagles were in action at the Coastal Carolina Invitational March 8 and 9. Pope led AU’s effort as he registered a third place result in the 3,000-meter run. Leininger finished close behind as he came in fourth while Matsakis, Regan and Allen also finished in the top 10 in the event. Leininger also posted a top-10 result in the 1,500-meter run as he recorded a time of 4:02.45, good for ninth.
The Eagles will next travel to College Park, Md. when they compete at the Maryland Invitational March 30.
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