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Solla Places Third at Texas Roadhouse Invitational
Feb. 3, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - This weekend, the Kennesaw State men's indoor team had a successful showing at the Texas Roadhouse Invitational. The team's top performances came from its distance runners, including a third place finish by sophomore Peikko Solla in the five kilometer race. Solla took third place as he crossed the finish line with a time of 5:10.95. Teammate Michael Johnson followed in seventh place as he set a new personal record by more than 16 seconds (15:21.50) and freshman Steven Murray also set personal record as he completed the race with a time of 15:52.50. Solla and Johnson ran side by side for the first half of the contest, until the pair made their move to the front of the pack and began to split apart. Solla narrowly avoided disaster when he mistakenly believed that he had completed the race with one lap to go. Upon slowing down, his team screamed from the sidelines for him to keep racing. The sophomore was able to remain calm and complete the run just two seconds shy of his personal best. "That was a great race by Peikko," said distance coach Jason Waters. "He ran the splits that he needed to and then he poured it on in the last lap. Michael also had a great race. To have a 16 second PR is a great accomplishment for him." The distance group continued to have a solid meet as they set a new KSU record in the distance medley. The team of Nathan Haskins, Gianni Catalano, Piotr Witczak and James Verdi turned in a time of 10:19.49 to smash the pervious record by more than ten seconds. In field events Jerome McKinzie placed fifth in the high jump with a height of 6-06.0ft. Also on the field, sophomore Joshua McNair took third place in the weight throw with a distance of 54-10.25ft. He later returned to compete in the shot put where he finished in fifth place with a distance of 47- 08.0ft. McNair was the sole Owl competing in throwing events at UNC as his teammate Casey Strickland was busy with his first heptathlon of the season. Strickland spent two days competing in the 60m hurdles, 60m dash, long jump, high jump, pole vault, 1000m race and shot put. The junior set a new KSU record as he scored 4355 points for sixth place. Sophomore Jason Fisher finished in tenth place with 3402 points. "Casey can do far better," said field coach Mike Goss. "This weekend was just to help him break the ice in the heptathlon. He took first place in the shot put for the multi-event and I know with a little bit more practice and focus he could score a lot more points in the next meet." In the three kilometer race junior Scott Burley led the way for the Owls as he finished in 14th place with a time of 8:50.67. He was followed by teammate Alex Hay III who set a personal record with a time of 9:31.67 and Maxwell Ndungu who completed the race with a time of 9:47.84. In 800m dash freshman Piotr Witczak delivered an outstanding performance as he set a new personal record with a time of 1:58.22. Freshman Michael Guntner also turned in a new personal record as he crossed the finish line with a time of 1:59.10. Guntner later returned to anchor the 4x400m relay team of Catalano, Auers, and Jeremy Easley. This group of runners represented Kennesaw State's 4x4 "B" team and they turned in a solid time of 3:28.30 for eleventh place. "Overall this was a very good meet for our distance runners," said head coach Don McGarey. "These are the kind of guys that give everything they can at practice and do the same when its time to compete." The Owls will be back in action in two weeks as they travel to Clemson University to participate in the Tiger Invitational. Results 5k 3k Distance Medley Mile 60m Dash 60m Hurdles 200m Dash 800m Dash Weight throw Shot Put Heptathlon |
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