Clayton State men place strong fifth at Southeast Regional

HICKORY, N.C. – April 20-21, 2012 – The Clayton State Laker men's track and field team turned in arguably its most productive meet of the season with a strong fifth-place finish on Friday and Saturday in the Southeast Regionals at Lenoir-Rhyne.

The Lakers recorded 72 points to finish fifth in the 11-team field. Clayton State recorded an individual victory, one team record, one facility record and 10 Top Five finishes. Mars Hill won the event with 178 points.

The Clayton State victory came in the 4x400-meter relay as the Laker team of Edlin Veras, Ricky Fort, Shelby Russell and Ayrton Azcue won with a time of 3:16.58. That time was a new facility record at the Lenoir-Rhyne track. In addition, the Clayton State team of Veras, Fort, Russell and Robert Spezzacatena finished sixth in the 4x100-meter relay in 42.97 seconds.

The top individual events for Clayton State were the 400-meter dash and the 800-meter run. The Lakers recorded four Top 10 finishes in the 800-meter run, and three Top 10 finishes in the 400-meter dash.

Azcue continued his strong outdoor season by placing second in the 800-meter run in 1:55.88, while teammate Charles Anderson was a close third in 1:57.34. Russell Lawless placed fifth in 1:59.05, and freshman Dinero Nicholas finished eighth in 1:59.65. In the 400-meter dash, Fort finished third in 49.59 seconds, followed by Veras in fourth in 49.61 and Russell placed sixth in 49.87.

Lawless continued his stellar showing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, placing second overall in a school-record time of 9:41.94. Meanwhile, Albert Mong'ony finished third in the 1,500-meter run, followed closely by Anderson in fourth in 4:02.89. In addition, Tanner Thomason placed ninth in the 10,000-meter run in 35:36.78.

The next meet for Clayton State is the Coach "O" Invitational at Troy next Saturday (April 28).