MARYVILLE, Mo. - The Southwestern Community College track & field team came home with two more school records after this weekend's Bearcat Invite at Northwest Missouri State University.
Freshman Zach Roome improved his own school record in the men's 1,000 meters, while freshman Cam Swapsy took down Roome's school record in the men's 600-yard run.
Roome improved his time in the 1,000 meters by nearly a full second Friday evening, finishing third overall in the event with his time of 2:29.84. The freshman from Sydney, Australia, ran a negative-split race, coming through the first 400 meters in 1:00.5, before covering the next 300 meters in 45.7 seconds and closing the final 300 meters of the race in 43.7 seconds. His new time moved him up to 21st on the NJCAA performance list for this season.
"We were expecting Zach's heat to get out fast based on the times everyone else said they were shooting for," said Scott Vicker, director of cross country/track & field. "Unfortunately, no one actually went for the times they said they were. So it was a slower pace at the start than we had expected. But, I thought Zach handled that well during the race and ran a strong race given how it played out. We know he's capable of a little more still, but we need to get out faster to realize that potential."
In Saturday's 600-yard run, Swapsy held on for third place overall after running away from the field to win heat 1. Swapsy's time of 1:14.35 held up as the fastest time in the event until the fastest and final heat. It bested Roome's previous school record by .38 seconds.
"Cam was shooting for a national-qualifying standard, and we knew it would be tough coming from the first heat with a bunch of no-times in the heat with him," Vicker said. "I give him credit; he really went for it. I thought he ran a great race, and he just needed some help toward the end to push him to a faster time. This was a really strong solo effort, so I'm proud of Cam for pushing himself."
Freshman Zach Thornburg turned in a pair of PR performances on Saturday, as well. Thornburg's quest to break the 7-second barrier in the 60 meter dash came up just short, but he still clocked a PR time of 7.00 seconds in the prelims. Later in the day, Thornburg came back to post a PR time of 23.15 seconds in the 200 meter dash, ranking him 15th on the program's all-time performance list.
Brandon Briley added to the list of PR performances Saturday, clocking a collegiate best time of 2:01.91 in the men's 800 meters. That was a 3-second improvement over Briley's previous best open 800 time for the season. Roome also doubled back in the 800 meters and appeared to be on track for a big PR in the event before getting cut off in the final 100 meters.
"Getting Brandon back closer to where he should be was big for us," Vicker said. "He'd been struggling a little bit getting readjusted to the speed of track this indoor season, but I thought he ran so much better this weekend. This should be a big confidence boost for him. In that 60 meter dash prelim, we all thought Zach (Thornburg) had finally dipped below 7 seconds, but the clock just wasn't on his side. It was still great for him to get a pair of PRs."
The men's 4x400 relay team of Thornburg, Roome, Swapsy, and Briley finished the meet with a big season's best time of 3:28.83, with splits of 53.9 for Thornburg, 51.1 for Roome, 51.3 for Swapsy, and 52.3 for Briley.
Sophomore Ross Stephens competed in the heptathlon Friday and Saturday.
"This was Ross's first competition since being sick for a week," Vicker said. "It was a tough week to try to do a heptathlon after being sick, but I give him credit for gutting his way through it. We struggled with some of the events this weekend, but it was a great opportunity for Ross to work on some things we can't always accomplish in practice."
The Spartans return to action this weekend at the Darren Young Classic hosted by Grinnell College. Select distance events will run Friday night, with the rest of the meet on Saturday.
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