BELLINGHAM, WA - The UBC Thunderbirds collected 20 podium finishes at the 29th annual Ralph Vernacchia Invitational Track and Field meet on Friday at Civic Stadium as the men's team came second overall (99.50 points) with the women bringing home a third-place result (31.50 points).
Western Washington (NCAA Div II) won both team banners, scoring 167 points in the women's competition and 196.50 in the men's.
COMPLETE RESULTS
The T-Birds notched a pair of sweeps in the men's competition as Curtis Moss led a 1-2-3 finish in the javelin, taking home the overall title with an effort of 62.10m. UBC teammates Andy White (58.87m) and David Skermer (54.20m) rounded out the podium.
Mark Chenery used a strong second day in the decathlon, over taking fellow T-Bird Reid Gustavson for the individual title. Ivan Staeheli, also from UBC, was third as all three T-Birds scored between 6,482 and 6,339 points. Seattle Pacific's Nate Johnson was fourth with 5,789 points.
Although they didn't sweep the podium in the men's 800-metre, the T-Birds could very well have had their finest team effort in the race, taking five of the top six spots.
Nigel Hole held on for a narrow win over fellow T-Bird Jordan Langridge, crossing the line in first with a time of 1:53.50 compared to 1:53.61 for Langridge. Jordan Smith, Aidan Kennedy, and Luc Bruchet occupied fourth through sixth.
The T-Birds also claimed first in the shortest and longest races of the day with Andrew Nathan (100-metre dash, 10.91) and Kerry Kazuta (10,000-metre run, 31:40.61) taking home gold in their respective contests.
Bruchet (1500-metre run, 3:55.11) and Ben Thistlewood (5,000-metre run, 14:59.07) just missed taking home first, coming in less than a second behind the winner in their distance races as they each earned silver medals.
UBC also added three bronze medals. Hole led UBC's 4x400 relay to third spot with Jeremy Erickson (high jump, 1.90m) and Svob Elliott (long jump, 6.44) rounding out the team's top 3 finishes.
In the women's competition, Liz Gleadle dominated the field in the javelin, out distancing her nearest competitor by almost 14 metres. She won the event with a throw of 54.33m.
UBC added one silver thanks to Nelly Amenyogbe's effort in the 10,000-metre run (37:05.08). Bronze medals were collected by Justine Clift (5,000-metre run, 18:51.24) and a pair of relays (4x100m and 4x400m).
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