Austin Breaks School Record at Duke Invitational

Friday, April 2

Durham, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Austin Breaks School Record at Duke Invitational

4/2/2010 11:00:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. - The Blue Devil men's and women's track and field programs hosted a successful day one of the annual Duke Invitational Friday evening at Wallace Wade Stadium with over 1,500 athletes competing at the event.

Duke began its first home meet of the season on a strong note, taking three of the top four spots in the women's javelin. Freshman Andrea Hopkins recorded her second first-place finish of the season with a 43.33m (142-2) performance in the event and teammate Amy Matulewicz finished in second with a throw of 42.45m (139-3); both marks met the ECAC qualifying standard as well. In addition, Shannon Sullivan took fourth place with a 41.12m (134-11) mark.

The women's distance runners also swept three of the top four spots in the 1,500-meters. Esther Vermeer led the way with a 4:28.92 clocking to take first, followed by Leslie Morrison in second with a time of 4:29.32. Both marks were personal bests for the respective athletes in addition to meeting the ECAC standards. Anna Farias-Eisner rounded out the Duke contingent with a fourth-place, 4:32.58 effort.

On the men's side, the Devil distance runners had an outstanding day in the 5,000-meters. Andrew Brodeur clocked a personal-best 14:12.06 in the event, good for fifth in the Duke record books and second at today's meet. Joshua Lund came in just behind with a 14:12.37 finish for third place, while James Kostelnik and Josh Brewer ran a fourth-place 14:19.20 and 14^th-place 14:56.69, respectively. All four Blue Devils in the section ran at a personal-best pace in addition to Brodeur, Lund and Kostelnik meeting the IC4A standard.

Jonathan Chu also competed in the 5,000-meters, taking first place in his section with a personal best 15:19.21.

Not to be outdone, two Blue Devils, David Piccirilli and John Austin, set personal records in the field events on day one. Piccirilli's 49.57m (162-07) performance in the hammer throw bests his previous high set earlier this season of 156-0, which was already the third-farthest performance in the Duke record book.

All-American Austin broke his own school record in the javelin with a toss of 69.27m (227-3) today. Austin earned a bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships after posting the previous record of 225-5 that season. The Mechanicsburg, Pa., native's throw on Friday is currently the seventh-best in the nation.

Duke's track and field athletes face a full slate of events tomorrow, Saturday, April 3, beginning at 10 a.m. with Michael Barbas in the shot put. The Duke Invitational will close at 5:50 p.m. with the men's 4x800m relay.

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