Morgan, Christensen, Knowles Earn Individual Wins at Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Freshman Keizo Morgan finished in first place in the 800 meters, freshman Miles Christensen won the mile, and junior Maxwell Knowles earned the javelin title, to highlight the performance of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's track and field team at the Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers Meet on Saturday.

Morgan won the 800 meters in 1:57.91, finishing in first place in an event that featured numerous non-collegiate entries running unattached or with track clubs. He won the race by just under one-half second over unattached runner Noah Ballard (1:58.36), who edged out a pair of other unattached runners (Guadrimas Matulionis in 1:58.37 and Oscar Soto in 1:58.41) in a photo finish for second. 

Christensen, who was coming off a first place finish in the 3000 last weekend at the Howie Ryan Indoor Invitational in Houston, earned a win for the second week in a row, this time taking the mile in 4:14.26. He won by 3.73 seconds over Carter Floyd of Pomona-Pitzer, with Wilson Ives of the Stags coming in fourth in 4:20.09.

Knowles finished in first in the javelin with a top throw of 179 feet, 11 inches. The Stags ended up with the top two finishers in the event, as well as three of the top five, as sophomore Jordan Venglass was the runner-up with a throw fo 168 feet, 10 inches, and sophomore Connor Schulz was fifth with a throw of 150 feet, five inches. 

The 4x400 relay team capped off the running events with a strong effort, finishing second behind UC San Diego with a time of 3:28.07 with Morgan running the anchor leg. Nohl Patterson, Cameron Finley and Daniel Addison ran the first three legs, as the Stags edged Chapman by .37 for second place. 

Freshman Jamie Cockburn had a strong 12th place finish out of 65 runners in the 200 to highlight the sprinters, crossing the line in 22.54 seconds, finishing second in his section behind Kavin Hariharan of UC San Diego. He also came in 10th in the 400 a time of 50.85, just behind sophomore teammate Alex McDonald in ninth with a 50.81. McDonald also picked up a fourth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles in 55.50, behind two unattached competitors and a hurdler from UC San Diego. 

Sophomore Stevie Steinberg came in fourth in the 3000, but first among Division III competitors with a time of 8:31.20, finishing behind two Division I runners from Cal Baptist and one unattached runner. 

In the field events, Walker Quinn finished third in the pole vault at 14'11", Reese Peterson and Matthew Sill were fourth and fifth in the hammer (143'3" and 126'4" respectively), while Peterson was fourth seventh in the shot put (second among collegiate competitors) with a 134'6" distance.

CMS will return to action next weekend when it hosts the Rossi Relays at the Burns Track Complex on Saturday.