ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Justin Kolpan broke his own school record in the javelin and recorded the fourth-best javelin throw in Division III this season to highlight the Franklin & Marshall's men's track & field performance at Muhlenberg. Kolpan was one of two event winners for the Diplomats as Alex Olener took the individual title in the 110 meter high hurdles.
Kolpan broke his own school record with a throw of 65.47 meters on Saturday, besting his previous PR in the event by nearly four meters. That effort was one of two top-three finishes in the event for the Diplomats as Dustin Stoetzel was marked at 49.92 meters on his best attempt.
Hammer was another strong event for the Diplomats as school record holder Will Bramley (47.19m) was the runner-up in that event, with Stoetzel (40.00m) and Ben Ford (39.74m) also scoring among the top eight finishers. Ford and Ben Ostroski (38.43m) both ended with PRs that make them the eighth and ninth best performers in school history for that event. Austin Hadley continued to showcase F&M's diversity of skills in the throws as he placed fifth in the discus (39.17m) and sixth in the shot put (13.15m). Ostroski was also a scoring member for the team in the discus (36.77m), while Laurence Miller took ninth in that event (36.61m).
Franklin & Marshall's win on the track for Olener came in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.64 seconds. Olener's day additionally saw him as the top Diplomat in both the triple jump (11.60m) and long jump (5.58m), with respective eighth and ninth-place showings in those field events. Elliott Coulter also competed in both the track and field events, taking third in both the 100 meters (10.91) and 200 meters (22.59). Coulter's time in the 200 meters made him the 10th-fastest individual in school history, while he just missed a PR in the 100 meters by one-hundredth of a second. Coulter later earned a top 10 finish in the long jump with a mark of 5.57 meters.
Zach Houff led the Diplomats in two events when he doubled in the 400 (52.52) and 800 meter (2:01.62) races, claiming eighth during both of those events. Owen McCann had the top finish in the mid-distance races as he took fourth in the 1,500 meters (4:04.56) while also running in the 400 meter event. Cole Smith was the team's top finisher in the steeplechase as he took seventh in a time of 11:14.21, with teammate Andrew Li just missing a scoring position by one placement (11:39.12). The Diplomats' also scored in the pole vault when Greg Bruno cleared 3.34 meters to earn an eighth-place individual finish.
Men's track & field will return to action next weekend with a revised schedule that now sees the team sending individuals to the Messiah Invitational where that three-day meet begins on Thursday and continues through Saturday. F&M will close the week with individuals running at Bucknell next Saturday.
