Men’s track takes third in Raleigh Relays

The men’s track and field team sent contingents to meets in North Carolina and Richmond in a weekend highlighted by performances in the 10k, 6,000-meter relay and shot-put.

At the Raleigh Relays, the men’s 6,000-meter relay squad of juniors Evan Kays, Allen Carr, Josiah Cradle and sophomore Dave Baxter clocked a time of 15:48.42 — good enough for ninth on the JMU all-time top-ten list.

The Dukes’ third-place finish behind Georgetown University and the University of Minnesota increases the team’s chances of getting a bid to the Penn Relays. The Penn Relays, held in Philadelphia, are one of the nation’s most selective and popular meets.

"Anybody that’s everybody is going to be there," JMU coach Dave Rinker said.

Carr had the fastest split of the four middle distance runners with 3:51.9 also ran the fastest split for 800 meters with a 1:51. Both times indicate improvement from his indoor season.

"He had a good day — when Allen is on, he’s on," Rinker said. "He’s coming along at the right time."

In the 10,000-meter run, sophomore Bryan Buckland and junior Nick Noe finished 14th and 18th, respectively. Buckland’s time of 30:51.82 and Noe’s time of 31:03.02, both personal records, met the qualification standard for the IC4A Championships.

"Qualifying for the IC4As was the main goal," Buckland said.

Buckland’s event this past indoor track season was the 5,000-meter run where he held the team’s best mark of the season in 14:37.46.

"At this stage, Buckland over the last couple of races has been our most consistent runner," Rinker said.

Also in Raleigh, N.C., two of the team’s distance specialists, sophomore C.W. Moran and senior Ted Herbert, ran the open 1,500-meter. In a tightly spaced field of 35 runners with little room to maneuver, Moran finished 18th with a time of 3:57.10 and Herbert finishing at 3:57.45. Herbert and Moran are slated for the 5,000-meter run in the important meets, but are currently working on building up their speed for it.

"If you want to train for the 5k, you run 1500s," JMU coach Bill Walton said.

At the Fred Hardy Invitational hosted by the University of Richmond, freshman shot-putter Ted Kranis made a strong showing in his outdoor track debut with a throw that placed him sixth on the JMU all-time list. His throw of 14.56 meters was good enough for fifth place at the meet.

The team will be competing next at the Duke Invitational in Durham on April 8 and 9.