West senior Shawn Young had a strong debut in his first ever 800 meters on Saturday in the 4x800, leading off in 2:08. Fellow seniors Chris Berry (2:08), AJ Morgan (2:05.7), and Austin Kline (2:08) followed, keeping pace with a loaded field to place fourth out of 23 teams in a season-best 8:32.39.
Junior jumping fanatic Jordan Gilliland earned his first winter track and field medal, placing 5th out of 12 competitors with a clearance of 5' 4".
Other bright spots for the Bucks included the distance medley relay of freshman Rock Fortna (3:27 1200m), senior Ethan Long (54 400m), freshman Carter Zerweck (2:20 800m), and senior Jimmie Kilgannon (5:04 1600m) .
In the 4x200 meter relay, junior Jamie Valdez (24.6), freshmen Ryan Walsh (25.7) and Ryan McIlhinney (25.9), and sophomore Josh Bazzano (25.0) combined for a 1:41.64 to win their heat in dramatic fashion on the home straightaway and place 11th overall out of 29 teams.
Junior Dan Nowakowski placed 10th in the hurdles with a big PR of 9.53 seconds, while senior Greg Branch placed 8th in the 400m with a 54.64 second effort and sophomore Josh Haschets placed 12th in the 60m dash with a time of 7.74 seconds. Freshman Jacob Cawley (58.5) and sophomore Gillis Wang (59.3) also impressed, breaking 60 seconds in their respective leadoff and anchor legs of the 4x400 meter relay team.
The Bucks will close out 2012 on Friday, December 28th at Lehigh at the Burdette Classic (formerly known as the Year End Special).