The high-hurdles were also a big high-light for the Bucks. A testament to Coach Conboy's expertise, West had an amazing eight hurdlers qualify into the 24-man field from all eight teams in the SOL Continental. After each team was allotted their two automatic qualifiers, the Bucks had six of the next eight fastest hurdlers in the league.
Senior Shawn Young's district-qualifying PR of 15.31 seconds won his heat, automaticallly clinching a prefered lane in Saturday's final. His time is also the third fastest time in program history, narrowly edging 2008 graduate Ian Kerr's 15.1 hand-time. Finishing close behind with FAT PRs were junior Big Dan Nowakowski (10th, 16.19) and senior Jimmie Kilgannon (11th, 16.21). Junior DhungHa Kim (12th, 16.32), sophomores DhungJoo Kim and Andrew Baker (tied-15th, 17.60, PRs), senior Dan Valko (19th, 17.84 PR) and sophomore Ryan Devlin (21st, 18.15 PR) followed with terrific efforts.
Freshman Brian Iatarola placed 11th in the high jump with a solid 5-6 clearance. In the long jump, DhungHa Kim set a new personal best, narrowly missing the final with his 19-5.5 10th place effort. Seniors Ethan Long and Jimmie Kilgannon also jumped well, hitting 18-6 and 17-11.5 respectively.
Despite being hampered by hamstring issues, juniors DhungHa Kim (11.65) and Jamie Valdez (11.78) posted PRs in the 100 meter dash, placing 17th and 18th in a talented field.
Freshman Rock Fortna (2:01.9) teamed up with seniors Austin Kline (2:02.3), AJ Morgan (2:04.4), and Chris Berry (2:02.4) to place 6th in the 4x800 with a district-qualifying 8:14.21 and earn 3 points for the Bucks.
The Bucks return to action on Saturday at CB South for the final day of the SOL Continental Conference Championships.