Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's track & field team opened its 2011 outdoor season by taking part in the Wake Forest Open this past weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C.

A trio of school records were either established or tied at the meet, each by underclassmen.

In the 800-meter, freshman Nicolas Gentile (Sarver, Pa. / Freeport) broke an outdoor record that stood for almost 17 years, finishing as the runner-up in the event with a time of 1:53.14.

Gentile broke former Colonial Lonnie Smith's mark of 1:54.19, which was set at the 1994 Northeast Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

In the field events, sophomore Collin Ray (Middletown, Pa. / Middletown Area) set a new outdoor mark in the discus with a toss of 47.68 meters (156'5"). The throw was good enough to finish eighth individually. Ray also posted a toss of 41.45 meters (136'0") in the hammer throw to finish 19th.

Freshman Chris Carper (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona) put his stamp on the javelin in his first meet taking part in the event, tying the school record of 64.19 meters (210'7") that was originally established by former Colonial Steve Gierlack at the 2005 NEC Outdoor Championships. The throw was good enough to help Carper finish second individually, trailing only Ben Lincoln of Wake Forest, who posted a toss of 67.80 meters.

Ray and Carper each qualified for the 2011 IC4A/ECAC Championships in their respective events at Wake Forest, while freshman Jackson Corcoran (Ligonier, Pa. / Ligonier Valley) joined Carper by qualifying in the javelin thanks to a throw of 60.90 meters (199'10"). Corcoran finished seventh in the event.

RMU's 4x100-meter relay team that consisted of seniors T.J. Green (Stamford, Conn. / Milford Academy) and Charles Gladman (Philadelphia, Pa. / Cardinal Dougherty), sophomore Tyler Morton (Silver Spring, Md. / Springbook) and freshman Abraham Roy (Middletown, Pa. / Middletown Area) also qualified for the IC4A/ECAC Championships, finishing eighth with a time of 42.09 seconds.

Gladman finished eighth in the 100-meter dash thanks to a time of 10.85 seconds after posting a mark of 10.84 seconds in the preliminaries. He also finished 11th in the 200-meter dash thanks to a time of 21.71.

Robert Morris is next in action Saturday, March 26, by taking part in the Bill Van Horne Invitational in Wheeling, W.Va. The meet is hosted by Wheeling Jesuit University.