FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Results

Feb. 12, 2011 - The North Central College men's track and field team encountered little resistance in defending its Chicagoland Indoor Championships title on Saturday, winning nine of the 17 events and building an insurmountable lead early in the competition at Al B. Carius Track.

The top-ranked Cardinals scored 182 1/2 points to finish well ahead of the 105 scored by the runners-up from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Carthage College finished with 63 points, followed by the 19th-ranked University of Chicago (62) and Lewis University (50 1/2).

North Central swept the top three places in the pole vault, as Peter Geraghty won with a clearance of 16 feet, 8 3/4 inches to automatically qualify for the NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships. Thomas Stacey followed in second place with a vault of 15'9", while Frank Wleklinski tied for third with a clearance of 14'5 1/4".

Daniel Benton and Jon Howard each improved their provisional qualifying marks for the championships in the 400-meter dash. Benton broke his own track record in winning the event in 48.85 seconds, while Howard crossed the line in 49.52 seconds to place third. Howard also teamed with Randal Ellison, Jonathan Caron and Robert Lott to win the 4x200-meter relay (1:28.92), establishing a new school record in the event. Howard, Caron and Benton then joined forces with Bai Kabba to win the 4x400-meter relay (3:22.10).

Robert Kapustka established a new personal best in the shot put (53'11 1/2"), winning the event and improving his provisional national qualifying mark, and also got the win in the 35-pound weight throw with a distance of 59'4". The Cardinals' other first-place finishes came from Zachariah Heerspink, who won the high jump (6'6 3/4:") and long jump (22'9 3/4"), and Neal Klein, who finished first in the 3,000-meter run (8:34.11). Following Klein and placing second in the 3,000 was Daniel Kerley (8:36.53).

North Central also got third-place finishes from Kabba in the 60-meter dash (7.12), Yonatan Mascote in the mile (4:21.42), and Aaron Ferst in the 5,000 (15:23.19).

North Central hosts the Cardinal Classic on Friday at 5 p.m.