By: by Scott Lipsky
Day One Results
Full Meet Schedule
Full Performance List
CONWAY, S.C. – Two relay events were won, a school record was set, and a meet record was set in the first day of the outdoor track and field season for the Kennesaw State men at the Asics Coastal Carolina Invitational in Conway, S.C.
The 4x200 meter relay team, consisting of junior Antonio Logan and freshmen Ethan Kasson, Frank Minton, and Travis Benton, made their presence felt in their first try as an outdoor relay team, breaking the school record of 1:27.93 set at Clemson in 2008.
Also starring on day one was the 4x800 meter relay team of Michael Guntner, Piotr Witczak, Daniel Grass and anchor Gianni Catalano. Guntner went out at an unusually fast pace in the race, which was run in warm, humid conditions on Friday afternoon, to build a comfortable lead.
Grass and Witczak would expand the lead, with Witczak running the fastest split of the four of them, 1:54.10. Catalano, the two-time defending A-Sun champion in the 800 meters, ran a 1:56.84 to finish the race and give his squad the victory. Their 7:42.43 time broke the meet record of 7:44.13
“Everybody did their part in the relay, and I was lucky enough to have teammates who put me in position to be successful by getting out in front and just letting me run my race by the time it got to me,” Catalano said.
Josh McNair finished sixth in the Hammer Throw, recording a distance of 178’07”, right underneath her school record of 180’9” in the only throws competition on Friday, to round out the top ten performances for the Owls on day one.
“I thought the team as a whole performed very well today, seeing as it was our first day of outdoor competition. Today’s competition was a good building block for us in terms of shaking some of the rust off, since it has been two weeks since the end of indoor season,” said assistant coach Devin West, who is heading up the trip. “We were fortunate to have the chance to run some relays today. It gave our runners the chance to see that they could already perform at high levels this weekend, and now a lot of them will be running their normal events tomorrow, so they already have that confidence.”
