Results
AKRON, Ohio – The longest-standing record in Slippery Rock men's track and field history fell twice in a matter of two hours Saturday at the Akron Invite. Freshman
Kevin Jewel broke the 800-meter record in the blue division race before senior
Phil Rector shattered the mark in the gold division hours later.
Jewel won his heat of the 800m of the blue division event and finished fourth overall with a time of 1:53.42. Akron's track is 300-meters long, which means 800-meter times have to be adjusted by 0.6 seconds to equal the performance on a typical 200-meter track. After the conversion, Jewel's mark of 1:54.02 was 0.05 seconds quicker than the Slippery Rock record of 1:54.07 set by Bill Price in 1983.
Hours later, in the gold, or invitational, section of the meet, Rector topped that mark with a personal best performance of 1:52.18 to place fifth overall as the only non-division I competitor in the race. His converted time of 1:52.78 stands as the new school record.
Rector and Jewel's performances are the top two times in the PSAC this season and are both NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the event. Rector's time slots him in as the fourth-fastest in the nation, while Jewel ranks 15th-best in the nation.
The mid-distance duo was joined at Akron Saturday by
Terrece Draper,
Kris Stalma and
Joel Peters on the men's side and
Jen Hansen on the women's side.
Draper placed sixth in the gold division of the triple jump with a leap of 13.78 meters.
Stalma finished sixth in the finals of the gold division 60-meter hurdles, posting a time of 8.34 seconds.
Peters placed 12th in the blue division of the weight throw with a toss of 15.34 meters.
Hansen placed fifth overall and was the top division II finisher in the women's pole vault, clearing a height of 3.80 meters. She cleared the same height as the second-place finisher, but dropped to fifth on number of attempts. Hansen's performance was just two inches short of her season-best mark of 3.85 meters, which is an NCAA automatic qualifier and leads the PSAC.
The Rock track and field teams will travel to Kent State University next Saturday.