WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Led by several top-ten throws finishes from Deandre Leith and Dizayuh Hinton, CIU men's track & field competed in the Mondo College Invitational on Saturday. The competition was stout as usual, consisting of not just fellow Appalachian Athletic Conference schools but also NCAA Division I & II members.  

Leith had a strong performance as usual, finishing 6th in the men's weight throw with a distance of 14.74m and 4th in the men's shot put (15.65m). Dizayuh Hinton finished a place behind Leith in the weight throw (14.53). Freshman Colton Buchanan came up just shy of his PR mark from last week with a throw of 9.7m.  

In Men's pole vault, Blake Rimmer cleared the NCCAA national standard with a jump of 4.45, while Branson Rimmer finished just shy of the NCCAA mark.  

On the track, the Rams had three top ten finishes: Ethan Robinson placed 9th in the seeded 200 meters with a time of 24.44, Clayton Hammond had a strong 7th place finish for the 400 meters (54.32), and Dario Laing placed 9th in the 600 meters (1:30.93). In the 4x400 relays, the rams placed 9th with a time of 3:38.42 

In the Rams' distance events, Gavin Barfield and Spencer Evans represented the Rams in the 3000m and one mile, respectively.  Barfield finished with a time of 9:59.65, which is the CIU school record in the 3000m.

Between the CIU men's and women's track programs on Saturday the Rams had 12 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship qualifiers and seven NCCAA National Championship qualifiers.

What Coach Tim Thompson is saying:  "It was exciting to have the whole team together. Our focus this meet was intentional effort. We supported, encouraged and competed to the best or our abilities. As a result we had multiple AAC and NCCAA qualifiers on top of three new school records.We are one step closer to our goals this season."

Up Next:  The Rams will take the trek up to Salem, Va. to compete in the Finn Pincus Invitational at Roanoke College on Jan. 21-22.