INDIANAPOLIS - After a strong opening day at the Crossroads League Championships, the Marian men's track and field grabbed sole possession of first place following the scoring of eight events. Marian's 98.5 points were highlighted by a clean sweep in both the weight throw and 600m, while the distance medley relay team was one of two Marian events to set a new league-meet record.

The highlight of the day for the Knights came toward the end of the meet, as the weight throw finished the field events and the DMR concluded the track action. In the weight throw, the nation's leader Isaiah Tipping rewrote the record book with his second and third attempts of the meet, clearing 21 meters on each throw and ending with a meet and school record of 21.35m. Tipping's extends his nation lead to a distance of 1.70m, while his personal best mark broke the CL meet record by a distance of 0.72m. Tipping was joined on the podium by Christian Rios (19.48m) and Markevious Keys (18.01m), who finished second and third with NAIA A standard marks. Jacob Netral would add a sixth place finish, giving Marian 27 total points from the event. 

The distance medley relay would kick off following Tipping's final throw, as Marian's team of Robin Aguilar-Gonzalez, Howard Hendricks, Eric Materna, and Tristan Trevino looked to hit a new mark. Gonzalez, Materna, and Hendricks kept Marian in a steady pace through the first three legs of the event holding the team in third place, and after the final exchange, Trevino hit a new gear to catch the team's from Spring Arbor and Goshen, catching the field to pull ahead and complete a Marian victory. Trevino's final kick gave Marian a time of 10:02.73, hitting an NAIA A standard to capture the No. 5 time in the NAIA, while additionally breaking a Marian and meet record. The Knights' time broke the school record by nine seconds and the meet record by eight seconds.

Marian's first scored event of the weekend was the 4x800m relay, with the Knights bringing home fourth place as the quartet of Mason Piatt, Benjamin Moster, Owen Pittman, and Everrett Carlisle clocked a time of 7:51.35. The Knights would add an additional 13.5 team points from the high jump, as Gunner Kovach led the group with a height of 1.92m. Jordan Pohl finished fifth with a mark of 1.82m, and Van Lian scored a sixth place finish, as his mark of 1.82m tied with Justin Farris of Grace College.

Armani Glass had a busy day for Marian, leading the Knights in the 60m preliminaries as the junior will hold the top seed with his time of 6.95 seconds on Friday. Manny Manneh took the fourth seed with a time of 7.01 seconds, and Will Osafo earned a spot in the finals seeding sixth with his 7.07 second effort. Glass would return to the field and earned a second place finish in the long jump, hitting an NAIA B standard with a distance of 7.03m. Van Lian would finish seventh and Jordan Pohl placed eighth, giving Marian 11 total points in the event.

The 600m race would add to Marian's team score in a big way, as four Knights claimed the top-four finishes. Matthew Riehle led the Marian quartet with a first place finishing time of 1:19.92, missing school record by 0.07 seconds. Riehle and Richard Dube both hit NAIA A standards, as Dube clocked a 1:20.59 time. Raif Miller finished third in 1:20.85 to set a PR, and Andrew McDade took fourth to cap the 29 point event, as McDade hit a B standard in his 1:20.90 time.

Marian would add points in the pole vault as Keagan La Belle hit a B standard mark with a height of 4.65m, adding to Marian's season-long qualifying list. Brenden Endres added to the team score finishing eighth at 4.55m, and Evan Haag missed the score with a height of 4.40m, finishing ninth. Marian's top finisher in the 5000m was Aaron Broderick, who finished 15th overall. Robert Lohman placed 17th and Adam Heitz finished 20th.

On Saturday the Knights will have three athletes compete for the 60m hurdle finals, as Micah Williams, Gus Martinez, and Caleb Carter placed second through fourth in the preliminaries. Williams had a time of 8.59 seconds, while Martinez and Carter were separated by one hundredth of a second as Martinez clocked an 8.65 time. 

Felipe Mentz and AJ Wrenn will finish off their heptathlon efforts on Saturday, as Mentz enters the day in third place and Wrenn holds fifth place. Mentz scored a win in the high jump and second place finish in the shot put to highlight his efforts, and Wrenn placed third in high jump.

Saturday's action at the Fall Creek Pavilion will pick back up at 10:00 a.m. with the men's heptathlon coming to its conclusion.

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