BROOKINGS, SD – The University of Mary broke a school record in the men's 4x400 meter relay at the South Dakota State University Indoor Classic as the Marauders ramp up their performances with the conference champions only a couple weeks out.
 
"This meet is always a highlight of our regular season as our athletes get the opportunity to post some impressive marks going into conference and gain a lot of confidence as a team," said Marauders head track & field coach Cale Korbelik. "I think we found out today what we can do when we go all out. The team is setting themselves up for success in two weeks. It was a great feeling to finish strong with two national marks in the mile relays and the men breaking a 19 year old school record."
 
The quartet of Jorgen Paulson, Aleix Garbajosa, Akil Howell and Raheem Taitt-Best combined to post a time of 3:14.83. In addition to breaking a school record, the Marauders placed second overall against impressive competition. With their NCAA provisional qualifying time, the Marauders rank 24^th in the country and third in the Northern Sun.
 
The previous record was 3:16.75 in 2004 by Tavis Freidt, Andy Wills, Tim Leier and Blake Olson.
 
The Marauders had other top 15 performances at the SDSU Indoor Classic, at meet at which close to 1,400 athletes were anticipated.

• Raheem Taitt-Best finished 11^th in the 400 meter run a time of 48.80 seconds
• Jorgen Paulson finished 11^th in the 60 meter dash preliminaries with a time of 6.98 seconds
• Dillan Kovash was 14^th in the pole vault (4.30 meters)
• Logan Barnes claimed 14^th in the high jump at 1.86 meters
• Logan Wentz placed 14^th in the long jump (6.26 meters)
• Tanner Schiller was 15^th in the 600 meter run (1:25.79)

 
UMary next competes at home in the Marauders TuneUp on February 18 with field events beginning at 11 am. It's the last opportunity for the Marauders to compete prior to the NSIC championships on February 23-25.
 
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