LYNCHBURG, Va. - Avery Martin continued his banner indoor season with another 800-meter win, while Pete Reed swept the horizontal jumping events and just missed an IC4A qualifying time in the 60-meter dash as VMI's men's track and field team competed at the opening day of the Liberty Quad, contested Friday in Lynchburg, Va.
Reed prevailed in the long jump (6.69 meters/21'11 1/2") and won the triple jump as well (13.64 M/44'9"). He added the second-fastest time in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash, timing at 7.00 seconds for the second consecutive meet and missing an IC4A qualification by just .02 seconds, again, for the second straight meet. Reed was tagged with a false start in the final, but teammate Aron Long was third in 7.15 seconds.
Martin, meanwhile, posted yet another IC4A qualifying time, this one a 1:55.26 in winning the 800-meters. He also ran a leg on the winning 4X400-meter relay team, teaming with Andrew Gould, Brandon Hartman and Julian Jackson to put up a time of 3:24.54.
Other victors for the Keydets included Daniel DeNijs, who won the 3,000-meters in 8:40.74, beating teammates Sean Helmke and Brandon White in a race nearly entirely comprised of VMI runners. Luke Lysher also won his event, beating two Gardner-Webb athletes to prevail in the 1,000-meters in 2:37.23.
Jordan White had another strong meet Friday, finishing third in both the shot put and weight throw. He hurled the shot 15.80 meters (51'10") to post an IC4A qualifier for the second straight meet, and fell just 1/2 inch shy of last weekend's personal best in the event. White posted a mark of 15.78 meters (51'9 1/4") in the weight.
In other results, Lee Warren was second in the 60-meter hurdles (8.44), Gould finished sixth in the 400-meter dash (51.47) and Luke Phillips was eighth in the mile (4:27.06).
Finally, Quincy Murphy leads a group of Keydets by sitting fourth in the heptathlon following day one. Murphy has 2773 points, and his best effort on day one was the third-best mark in the long jump (6.66 M/21'10 1/4").
Murphy and the other Keydets in the heptathlon will be involved in Saturday's only remaining competition at the Liberty Quad, the last three events of the heptathlon. Action gets underway at 11 a.m.
