Full Results

University Park, Pa. – Senior Nicolas Gentile (Sarver, Pa. / Freeport) won the 800-meter run to lead the Robert Morris University men's indoor track & field team at the Penn State National Invitational conducted Friday and Saturday at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
 
RMU only had a small contingent compete at the prestigious meet a week before the Northeast Conference Championships. The Colonials competed against schools from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten and Pac 12 at the event.
 
Gentile won the 800 meters in 1:53.75, a time which qualified him for the IC4A Championships in early March. In posting the fourth-fastest time in school history, Gentile has now won the 800 meters in each of the past two times he has entered the event.
 
Redshirt senior Steve Mitchell (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Pittsburgh Central Catholic) posted a season-best toss of 17.77 meters in the weight throw. In doing so, he surpassed the IC4A standard in that event for the second time this season and also bettered his league-leading mark. Mitchell's toss was the ninth-longest in school history.
 
Juniors Richard Njenga (Ephrata, Pa. / Ephrata) and Shane Witmyer (West Lawn, Pa. / Wilson) rounded out RMU's individuals that competed. Njenga registered a leap of 14.21 meters in the triple jump while Witmyer tallied a bound of 6.53 meters in the long jump.
 
Robert Morris also had a 4x400 meter relay squad compete at the event as the quartet posted a time of 3:23.65, just a tenth of a second off of RMU's best time this season. Senior Fred Thompson (Turtle Creek, Pa. / Woodland Hills), senior Chris Carper (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona), junior Malcolm Ayers (Clarksburg, Md. / Clarksburg) and sophomore Mark Ayitey (East Pittsburgh, Pa. / Woodland Hills) made up the relay squad for the Colonials.
 
Robert Morris will head to Landover, Md. next weekend to compete for conference titles. The meet starts Saturday, Feb. 8, and will conclude Sunday, Feb. 9.