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DISTANCE MEDLEY LEADS RAMS AT PRESTIGOUS NISWONGER INVITATIONAL JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Freshman Tyler Simmons (Woodbridge, Va.) is showing no signs of nerves in his first season with the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s track and field program. Simmons posted a blistering 800-meter portion of the distance medley relay to lead the Rams to a second-place finish in the event at the prestigious Niswonger Invitational this past weekend. As a team, the Black & Gold posted nine top-10 finishes at the meet that was hosted by East Tennessee State University.
“All four guys really ran a great race,” Head Coach Julian Spooner said. “Kennesaw State have a bunch of talented runners. Our guys went out and ran right with them today. Tyler Simmons showed the potential that we saw when we recruited him and posted a personal best by a long shot.” Sophomore Brian Wallace (Portsmouth, Va.) continued his emergence as one of the Rams’ top performers with a fifth-place showing in the long jump with a leap of 22’ 11 ¾’’. Classmate Brandon Allen (Trenton, N.J.) finished ninth in the event with a mark of 22’ 3 ½”. Freshman Ronnie Black (Newport News, Va.) stayed hot with his second-straight sixth-place performance in the high jump with a leap of 6’ 6 ¾”. As always, junior DeAngelo Wilson (Richmond, Va.) (right) was among the elite with a seventh-place showing in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.90. “I really like the way we are coming together as a team,” Spooner said. “Both Coach [Ron] Jones and I feel that we are really making progress in all areas and are going to hit our stride right when we want.” The Black and Gold return to action as they travel down I-64 East to take part in the Christopher Newport Invitational on Saturday, February 7th.
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Making up the distance medley team was Simmons on the 800-meter leg, sophomore Donnie Seward (Richmond, Va.) on the 400-meter leg, junior Stephen Mutisya (Machakos, Kenya) on the 1200-meter portion and senior Jay Wyss (Richmond, Va.) on the mile-long anchor leg. The quartet’s time of 10:08.62 was less than a second behind a powerful team from Kennesaw State. All rights reserved.
