The Panther men's track and field team claimed multiple event victories to win the Middlebury Outdoor Invitational on a windy Saturday at Dragone Field. The Panthers secured the crown with 298 points, while Union (N.Y.) was the runner-up (134 points) and Plattsburgh State rounded out the top-three places (101 points).
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Middlebury crossed the line first in a pair of relay events. The 4x100-meter relay team of Marco Motroni, Richard Clark, Xander Swann and Aaron Tobias posted a winning time of 42.85.A few events later, the 4x400 relay quartet of Johnny LaFortune, Lachlan Bishop, Zach Utz and Max Cluss stopped the clock with a victorious time of 3:29.40, more than eight seconds better than the second-place team.
• Cluss led the field to the line in the 800 (1:55.91), while Peter Hansen was the first of four-straight finishers in the 400 hurdles (54.92) for the Panthers.
• During the jumping events, Walker Coleman hit the sand in the long jump with a winning distance of 6.81m, Tristan Joseph cleared the high jump bar with a top mark of 1.93m, and Joel Kofman won the pole vault at a height of 4.30m.
• The Panthers picked up two victories in the throwing events. Dan Urchuk won the discus with a heave of 44.38m, while Dave Filias claimed the hammer by tossing the implement 56.10m to win by more than 10 meters.  

NOTES

• Prior to the start of the meet, Middlebury honored seniors Cluss, Coleman, Lucas Donavan-Lafuente, Hansen, Luke Hayes, Isaac Kaplan, LaFortune, Luke Lorenz, Diego Rey and Douglas Rosin for their contributions to the program.

The Panthers return to competition on Saturday when they look to win their third NESCAC Championship in the last five seasons. The conference meet will be hosted by Connecticut College.