The distance medley team finished second while Conor Lanz placed ninth in the 1500 meters to cap AU's participation in the Texas Relays held in Austin, Texas this past weekend.
The Eagle's elite men traveled south on Friday to compete against some of the top individual runners and relay teams in the country in preparation for the Patriot League championships at the beginning of May.
In the distance medley, Brendan Fennell was able to run a commanding anchor leg to give the four-man team a second place finish to the University of Texas. Down 50 meters at the start of his run, Fennell was briefly able to stay stride for stride with Longhorn Lionel Manzano, the defending NCAA indoor mile champion, before Manzano regained his lead to give his team the victory. Fennell finished with time of 9:52:85, only four seconds away from the win.
"Fennell put in a tremendous effort, really tremendous," Coach Matt Centrowitz said. "It was the fastest time of the day. He ran down the NCAA indoor champion and kept up with one of the top relay teams in the country."
Also impressive for the Eagles was the performance by Conor Lanz in the 1500-meter race. Lanz finished in ninth place in the "A" heat, which included a number of All-Americans, with a personal-best time of 3:51:67.
"The guy who won the race was the NCAA Champion and Conor was only three seconds back of him," Centrowitz said. "He did not run a perfect race but I am excited he did so well."
The rest of the team did not compete this weekend, as its meets in Durham, N.C. and Princeton, N.J. were canceled due to the bad weather. However, Centrowitz said he was pleased with the amount of training that the team, especially the girls, was able to get in. The women's 4 by 800 relay team of Mercedes Ball, Ashley Dellinger, Kate Lilly and Danielle Loughrey made huge improvements over the weekend, according to Centrowitz.
The next big meet for the Eagles is the prestigious Penn Relays at the end of April, to be held a week before the PL championships, a meet that will be great preparation for the team.
"It takes a lot of nervousness out of us," Centrowitz said. "It definitely makes us more relaxed at the PL's"
