March 8, 2008

Complete Results

PEMBROKE, N.C.—Knights’ junior Mitch Cooper (Virginia Beach, Va.) won two distance events and the rest of the St. Andrews Presbyterian College men’s track & field team had five runner-up finishes in the program’s season-opening competition -- the 2008 Braves Track & Field Classic hosted by UNC Pembroke -- on Saturday at the Irwin Belk Track Complex.

St. Andrews battled a strong wind and five other teams on Saturday with the Knights finishing in the top-3 of half of the events they competed in at the Braves Classic.

Cooper dominated the distance races winning a pair of events. Cooper broke the SAPC school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a blazing speed of 10:13.63. Cooper won the steeplechase by over 10 seconds and broke the Knights program record by almost 12 seconds.

Three other Knights competed in the 3,000m steeplechase for the first time. Sophomore Pedro Tapia Jr. (Sanford, N.C.) finished third with a time of 10:43.41; freshman Josh Pickett (Asheville, N.C.) followed in fourth at 11:09.74; and sophomore James Lloyd (Lusby, Md.) was the third straight Knight to cross the finish line in fifth at 11:26.34.

Cooper also won the 5,000-meter run by edging Tapia by nearly six seconds. Cooper won the event in 16:12.66 while Tapia captured second place out of 10 entrants with a time of 16:18.33. Freshman Tommy Wilson (Salisbury, N.C.) finished fifth in his first track & field competition with a time of 17:34.29 while senior Patrick Hogan (Denton, N.C.) set a new personal record (PR) by 30 seconds at 18:59.07.

Pickett just missed giving SAPC another win in the 800-meter run by crossing the finish line less than a half of second behind the winner. Pickett’s sprinted home in 2:07.68 to finish second out of 11 competitors. Sophomore teammate Brad McKee (Kings Mountain, N.C.) added a time of 2:31.39 in the 800.

Lloyd and McKee capped the Knights competition in the distance races with 4:50.98 and 5:09.12 times, respectively, in the 1,500-meter run.

St. Andrews earned silver medals in three of four throwing events. Sophomore Matthew Rogers (Eatonton, Ga.) was the runner-up in both the shot put and hammer throw while senior Caelen Garner (Ramseur, N.C.) was second in the javelin throw.

Rogers broke his own school record in the shot put with a distance of 12.13m to finish second out of 13 challengers. In his first try in the shot put, Garner posted a length of 9.58m. Rogers then set an SAPC benchmark distance in the teams first-ever competition in hammer throw. Rogers’ mark of 24.49m was second out of four entrants.

Garner provided the Knights third runner-up showing in the throwing events with a distance of 37.34m in the javelin throw. Rogers also competed in the discus throw, finishing seventh by logging a toss of 27.19m.

Sophomore jumper Cameron Cofield (Chesapeake, Va.) participated in two competitions. Cofield was fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 11.83m and fifth in the long jump with a mark of 5.83m.

Senior sprinter Brett Aldrich (Dunellen, N.J.) raced in two short-distance events for SAPC. Aldrich set a PR in the 200-meter dash with a speed of 25.37. Aldrich just missed his PR in 100-meter dash clocking in at 12.17.

St. Andrews next competes at the Seahawk Invitational hosted by UNC Wilmington on Friday and Saturday, March 14-15 at the Greene Track Complex in Wilmington, N.C.