Wittstadt Smashes 42-Year-Old 800m School Record

Friday, April 19

Winston-Salem, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Wake Forest Invitational

Beck Wittstadt celebrates win at Duke Invite

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Wittstadt Smashes 42-Year-Old 800m School Record

4/20/2024 12:28:00 AM | Track & Field

Final Results (PDF)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Beck Wittstadt headlined a steady day of competition for Duke track and field at the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday as the junior established a new personal best on the way to unseating the 42-year-old school record in the 800m.

The Blue Devils also racked up a multitude of top-five placements on the day, including a win in the men's hammer throw and nine runner-up finishes.

TOP PERFORMANCES

A week after slotting himself No. 2 all-time in program lore, junior Beck Wittstadt one-upped his performance setting a new personal best en route to moving atop the Duke charts.
Representing the Blue Devils in the 800m invite Wittstadt clocked 1:47.19 to finish sixth overall, unseating the previous record set by Rich Block (1:47.38) in 1982.
Freshman Christian Toro notched the lone Duke win of the day, and the first of his career, with a stellar outing in the men's hammer throw.
Commanding the competition from the jump, Toro used his opening throw to position himself atop the leaderboard then notched further distances on each of the ensuing four throws – the best coming via his fifth attempt reaching 63.79m (209-3 feet). Toro's mark was nearly 16 feet higher than the runner-up.
Graduate student MaKayla Mason notched a pair of second-place finishes for the Blue Devils in the women's discus and women's shot put, respectively, to push her season total to seven top-five placements.
Mason took part in the discus competition first and delivered her best showing on the fourth attempt with the throw checking in at 52.64m (172-8 feet). Later that evening in the shot put, Mason's best toss came via her first attempt measuring 15.70m (51-6.25 feet).
The men's and women's long jump events saw Duke collect runner-up placements behind the efforts of Ezra Mellinger and sophomore Gianna Locci.
Mellinger turned in his furthest jump on attempt number four with the graduate student flying out to 7.48m (24-6.50 feet). On the women's side, Locci made her third jump the charm as she parlayed that attempt into a leap of 6.09m (19-11.75 feet).
Rookie Gemma Tutton reeled in her fourth top-five finish of the season with her second-place showing in the women's pole vault. Tutton passed on the first four heights, then cleared the fifth on her first jump before bowing out at a final clearance of 4.06m (13-3.75 feet) to finish runner-up.
Over on the track, the Blue Devils collected second-place finishes in the women's 100m hurdles, men's 110m hurdles, women's 400m hurdles and men's 3000m steeplechase.
Graduate student Birgen Nelson clocked 13.53 seconds in the 100m hurdles while freshman Michael Scherk turned in a time of 14.49 seconds.
Meredith Sims turned in the best performance of her career in the 400m hurdles with the junior racing to a finish of 59.27 seconds. In the 3000m steeplechase, graduate student Michael Keehan ran 8:44.39 for his first top-five placement of the outdoor season.
The complete meet results are available here.

UP NEXT
The Blue Devils will feature a split squad to close out the regular season slate as several members of the team head to the City of Brotherly Love for the Penn Relays (April 25-27) while others travel to Charlotte for the Charlotte Invitational April 26-27.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

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