Manchester Men Place Second at Manchester Invitational, Seniors Honored on Saturday

4/11/2023 9:52:00 AM

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. - The Manchester University men's and women's track and field teams hosted the Manchester Invitational on Saturday, April 8.

The Spartans welcomed competing athletes from Ohio Northern University, Franklin College, Bluffton University, and Grace Christian University.

The Manchester men took second place out of the five-team field with an overall team score of 150 points. Ohio Northern took first at Saturday's invitational with an overall team score of 356 points. Bluffton took third with 89 team points, Franklin finished in fourth with 46 team points, while Grace Christian rounded out the five-team field with one team point.

Prior to the start of Saturday's meet, Manchester honored its senior class with a small, on-field ceremony.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES & PODIUM FINISHES

Gabe Hendricks (Fort Wayne, Ind., Bishop Luers) took first place in the men's hammer throw with a mark of 49.92m. Hendricks also won the discus with a distance of 45.35m.
Ben Villafuerte (Angola, Ind., Angola) took fourth in the discus throw with distance of 39.68m. Villafuerte also compete in men's shot put, finishing in second place with a mark of 15.78m. His shot put mark puts him second best all time in Manchester school history.
Manchester's Trevor Getts (Corunna, Ind., DeKalb) and Alex Gronkiewicz (DeMotte, Ind., Kankakee Valley) took fourth and fifth place in the men's javelin. Getts had a throw of 39.22m while Gronkiewicz finished the day with a mark of 39.08m.
Getts also competed in pole vault, finishing the day in third place with a height of 2.80m.
Rolando Phillips (West Palm Beach, Fla., Inlet Grove Community) on the triple jump on the men's side, finishing with a mark of 12.38m.
Gentry Oliver (Lafayette, Ind., McCutcheon) grabbed second place in men's long jump with a mark of 6.46m.
On the men's side, Kyle Newcomb (Rolling Prairie, Ind., New Prairie) took fourth in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 11:15.07.
On the men's side, Manchester took third and fourth place in the 1500m run. Enrique Salazar (Plymouth, Ind., Plymouth) took third with a time of 3:56.54. Connor Havens (LaPorte, Ind., LaPorte) finished in fourth with a new Manchester top-10 mark, crossing the finish line in a time of 4:01.05.
Quentin Willis (Athens, Ga., Oglethorpe) competed in the 110m hurdles, taking fourth place in a time of 16.18. Willis also took fourth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.90.
Corbin Till (Fort Wayne, Ind., Bishop Dwenger) finished in fourth place in the 100m dash with a time of 11.49 seconds.
The Spartans also took second in the men's 4x100 relay. The team consisting of Gabe Melvin, Duriel Moss Jr., Tristen Bronaugh, and Corbin Till finished in a time of 42.36 seconds, setting a new Manchester top-10 mark for second best all time in Manchester school history.
The men's 4x400 relay team consisting of Jonah Richards, Gavin Byerly, Brenden Oden, and Ben Miles also took third in a time of 3:36.17.

UP NEXT

The Spartans are slated to compete at the Indiana D3 Championships hosted at DePauw University on Saturday April 15.

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