It was equal parts track and field that defined a successful showing for the John Carroll men's squad at the semester opening SPIRE North Coast Open Saturday in Geneva, Ohio.

Results

While technically not the season opener -- JCU had a handful of athletes compete at the Youngstown State meet back in December -- the SPIRE meet effectively served as a restart to the heart of the schedule that will conclude with the conference championships at the end of February.

An encouraging restart to say the least.

The Blue Streaks had two finalists in the 60-meter hurdles, as both Cory Biro (8.72) and Nick Williams (8.86) qualified. While neither runner could duplicate or better their preliminary times in the finals, Biro (5th) and Williams (10th) both posted top ten finishes in a field of 23 competitiors.

In the 400-meter dash, Bill Zaccardelli placed ninth with a time of 52.01.

Pat Burns earned a spot in the top five of the one-mile run, clocking in at 4:22.59 to place fifth.

In the 5,000-meter run, a pair of Blue Streaks were top ten placers. Will Rial finished sixth in 15:44.52, while Jake Smith was next across in seventh at 15:47.50.

Two relays posted excellent showings for John Carroll, led by the distance medley quartet of Evan Bellan, Rob Morel, Nick Babb and John Cameron which finished third in 11:23.30. The 4 x 400 foursome of Zaccardelli, Babb, Williams and Nick D'Amico finished seventh in 3:33.22.

As for field events, Biro was also a part of that strong effort. In the pole vault, Biro cleared 3.95 meters (12-11 1/2) to tie for seventh place.

Newcomer Mike Jones also cleared a bar and earned a top five in the high jump. His mark of 1.75 meters (5-08 3/4) earned him fifth place.

Rocky Mitolo placed ninth in the shot put, as his heave of 13.19 meters (43-3 1/4) earned him a top ten finish. The same was true of Mike Monjock's leap of 6.36 meters (20-10 1/2) in the long jump. That effort earned him eighth place.