Men open outdoor track season

Saturday the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs track team began its outdoor season at the University of Northern Colorado Stampede. After two weeks off and on a gorgeous, albeit windy day, the men were able to have some very outstanding performances.

Craig Galaydick led the men with a provisionally qualifiying throw in the Discus of 163 feet 5 inches.

"I could have done better," said Galaydick. "The wind really messed me up."

The distance runners began the day by having Jason Braun, Ryan Price, and Gabe Small sweep the steeplechase finishing first, second and third respectively.

Later the rest of the distance men entered the 1500 expecting some big performances. Too bad the weather had other ideas.

"The wind on that back stretch was just horrible," said Jay Luna about wind gusts that made maintaining a rhythm, which is particularly important to distance runners, nearly impossible.

The Mountain Lions were still able to dominate the race with all seven of the men entered finishing in the top ten. Aaron Rubalcaba-Lopez led the way with a 4:19.51.

After having just taken a Physical Fitness Test (PFT) for the ROTC program at UCCS, Dan Strischock came back to place second in the 800 meter dash with a time of 2:01.48, only the second time in his whole running career that he has ran the race.

"I ran spectacular for being really sore," said Strischock. "That was a good meet to start the outdoor season."

The other bright spot on the men's team was Steven Perfors. Perfors placed third while setting a new school record in the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.8 seconds

"After not running in a hurdle event in four years it was fun to come out and have a good race," said Perfors. "I was just trying to come out and get back into the groove of running again and get some hurdles under my belt, I felt really rusty, but it was fun to finally do my event."

The men ended the day by having the 4x400 team place second. Composed of Strishock, Perfors, Matt Creech, and Mark Brehm the team ran a time of 3:33.40.

"(It was a) good effort by everyone on the team," said assistant coach Bob Graf. "(We had) some good performances today to start the outdoor season."