BISMARCK, ND – The outdoor season started in impressive fashion for the University of Mary men's track & field team at home in the Marauders Outdoor Opener as UMary broke two school relay records. Additionally Jorgen Paulson posted an NCAA qualifying mark one week after earning All-American honors.
 
A senior from Edgely, ND, Paulson competed at his first collegiate championship event eight days ago, finishing 7^th in the long jump at the NCAA Division II indoor championships. Now with a taste of national success, Paulson kicked off his efforts of returning to the NCAA championships with an outdoor qualifying mark in the long jump. He won the event with a top effort of 7.42 meters.
 
UMary opened the track portion of the day with a record-breaking effort in the 4x300 meter relay. Osiel Cano, Berkley Munnings, Emanuel Latawiec and Preston Lemar combined to post a mark of 2:25.67 to set a new program standard.
 
The Marauders broke their second record of the day in the next to last event. Izaak Kudrna, Dawson Hawkinson, Osvaldo Cano and Paulson combined their efforts for a clocking of 1:25.52 in the 4x200 meter relay and establishing another program best.
 
Several other Marauders also claimed titles on the day:

• Osvaldo Cano edged teammate Dawson Hawkinson by .05 seconds to win the 200 meter dash in a time of 21.96 seconds
• Gideon Hammah, announced as the UMary outdoor track athlete to watch on Friday, won the 800 meter run in 1:54.72
• Joseph Ringhand took the 1500 meter run title with a time of 4:06.93
• Osiel Cano claimed the 400 meter hurdles crown with a time of 54.21 seconds, just ahead of teammate Berkley Munnings (54.73 seconds)
• Ringhand, Max Lefor, Hammah and Ryan Koberoski won the 4x800 in a clocking of 8:07.23
• Will Mickelson topped the field in the high jump after clearing the bar at 1.92 meters
• Sean Erickson tossed the discus 47.69 meters for the win
• Cameron Brusven won the javelin with a top mark of 52.90 meters

 
The Marauders also won the team title with 207 points, finishing ahead of Dickinson State University (181), Valley City State University (56), the University of Jamestown (53) and Bismarck State College (51).
 
UMary next competes at the Spank Blasing Invitational on March 28-29, hosted by CSU Pueblo in Pueblo, CO.


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