CALIFORNIA and NORTH DAKOTA – Finding an extra gear while competing on the West Coast, the University of Mary men's track & field team broke a pair of longstanding relay records at the 2023 Bryan Clay Invitational on Saturday April 15.
 
In their best performance of the day while racing in Azusa, CA, the Marauders quartet of Akil Howell, Brendon Hoyte, Aleix Garbajosa and Raheem Taitt-Best jetted their way to a record-breaking time of 3:13.67 in the 4x400 meter relay. Their NCAA provisional qualifying effort mark earned them a 4^th place finish at the meet. UMary ranks 23^rd in the country and 2^nd in the NSIC.
 
The Marauders were the only non-NCAA Division I team in the top seven.
 
The former 4x400 record was 3:14.29 in 2004 by Blake Olson, Seth Hoff, Andy Wills and Tavis Freidt.
 
Jorgen Paulson joined Hoyte, Howell and Taitt-Best to narrowly take down the Marauders 4x100 meter relay record that had stood for over two decades. The UMary foursome ran an electric time of 41.04 seconds to place 7^th overall.
 
The old 4x100 record time of 41.14 was established by Rob Brandt, Ryan Schafer, Chris Wilmes and Tanner Miller in 2001.
 
Hoyte (21.67), Taitt-Best (21.74), Howell (21.77) and Paulson (22.18) all set career-bests in the 200 meter dash.
 
Dawson Strom turned in a personal best in the 5000 with a clocking of 14:55.30.
 
The Marauders also had several strong performances at the Dickinson State Blue Hawk Games in Dickinson, ND, on Sunday, April 16, led by title performances by Brian Miller and Cameron Brusven.
 
Miler ran a collegiate-best time of 4:15.01 to win the 1500 meter run.
 
A freshman, Brusven won the javelin with a toss of 52.39 meters one day after competing in the Marauders football Spring Game. Close behind in second place was Vaughn Deinhart. The former UMary baseball player hit a top toss of 50.76 meters on his final throw of the day in just his third meet competing in the javelin.
 
Nathan Bender ran a career-best time of 11.25 seconds to place second in the 100. He also hit a career-best time of 22.96 seconds in the 200 to place 5^th.
 
Malakhi Stevenson (16.69 seconds) and Kaden Selle (17.12 seconds) finished 3-4 in the 110 meter hurdles. Stevenson also took 3^rd in the pole vault (3.80 meters) and 5^th in the long jump (6.42 meters).
 
Logan Wentz claimed 3^rd in the triple jump (12.66 meters) while Trey Haugen finished 5^th in the shot put (13.76 meters).
 
Next up for the Marauders is the Al Bortke Open on Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, at the MDU Resources Community Bowl in Bismarck, ND. The meet was rescheduled from earlier in the month.
 
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