WE'RE #3; WE'RE #3

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DYBAS, WALLACE CAPTURE TITLES IN RAMS’ THIRD PLACE FINISH AT CAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Black & Gold finish in top three for seventh straight season

TOWSON, Md. – Facing one of his toughest years in his 15 seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University, Head Coach Julian Spooner knew his men’s track & field squad would have to have a lot of different guys step up.

“We’ve had some many guys face injuries this year that in order to make up the points we knew we would have to have guys step up,” Spooner said. “With guys like Jay [Wyss] and DeAngelo [Wilson] out, you’re talking about probably close to 100 points or so.”

Spooner’s Rams stepped up and posted its seventh straight top-three finish at this weekend’s Colonial Athletic Association Championships, thanks in large part to individual titles captured by junior Piotr Dybas (Jaslo, Poland) in the 3000-meter steeplechase and sophomore Brian Wallace (Portsmouth, Va.) in the triple jump.

“Of course you always want to win the title, but I’m pleased with the way we had so many guys step up this weekend,” Spooner stated.

The Black & Gold finished with 145 points on the weekend, finishing just 13 points behind William & Mary and 39 points behind champion, UNC Wilmington.

Dybas, who had already locked up a spot in the NCAA East Regionals in the steeplechase, added to his trophy case with a time of 8:59.02, good for 10 points for the Black & Gold.

Wallace led a quintet of Rams’ scorers in the triple jump with a leap of 49’ ¾”. Following the sophomore were classmates Joe Edwards (Virginia Beach, Va.) in second place, Allan Moody (Woodbridge, Va.) in third place and Brandon Allen (Trenton, N.J.) in sixth place. Junior Dwayne Handon (Fairfax Station, Va.) finished seventh to round out the quintet.