Chris Spooner leading Ryan Blood on the first leg
of the DMR at the Collegiate Invitational in NY (photo by Dyestat) 
Seven of the 12 athletes running for Pitt, Duke and Lock Haven in the Distance Medley Relay in early February at the Collegiate Invitational in New York graduated from Pennsylvania high schools. Two are in this photo by John Dye of Dyestat.com... Chris Spooner (Lewisburg), running lead-off for the Duke Blue Devils, and just behind him, Ryan Blood (East Pennsboro), for Lock Haven.
9:45.18 Pitt would win it all in an NCAA Provisional 9:44.45, with Duke taking third-place in 9:49.06 to automatically qualify for IC4A competition, while Lock Haven would finish 7th in 9:57.71. Three of Pitt's squad come from PA schools. Their winning splits were exactly what they needed to beat 2nd place Arkansas: Tim Konoval: 2:57, Kareem Cousar: 8.5 (Pittsburgh Central Catholic), Jeryl Wilborn:1:51.5 (Milton), Sam Bair: 4:06 (Shaler).
On the Lock Haven squad were Tim Hite (Altoona), and Cory J. Spidell (Marion Center). Check these splits, courtesy of FORMER record-holder Ryan Comstock, and distance coach Aaron Russell: Blood 2:59 >Hite 49.8 >Spidell 1:57.2 >Cowan 4:11
Their time snapped the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference record and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II Nationals.
More on the Lock Haven track page
Spooner also teamed with former North Penn star Steve Craig to help the Duke 4 x 800 relay to a time of 7:49.25, coming in just seconds behind American. The time is an automatic IC4A qualifying mark.
Event 51 Men's Championship DMR
Final
Name Affiliation Time
Heat 1
1 Pittsburgh, Relay Team Pittsburgh 9:44.45
2 Arkansas, Relay Team Arkansas 9:45.18
3 Duke, Relay Team Duke 9:49.06
4 Tennessee, Relay Team Tennessee 9:51.83
5 Maryland, 4000D Relay Team Maryland 9:53.57
6 Manhattan, Relay Team Manhattan 9:57.12
7 Lock Haven, Relay Team Lock Haven 9:57.71
8 LSU, Relay Team LSU 9:59.60
9 St. Francis (PA), Relay Team St. Francis (PA) 10:03.89
10 South Carolina, Relay Team South Carolina 10:11.15