ALLIANCE, OHIO – The Daemen College men's indoor track and field team competed in the 2017 Jim Wuske invitational at the University of Mount Union's Peterson Fieldhouse today.
 
Senior Matt VanDeMortel (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) achieved the top place for the Wildcats today, securing third place in the 800-meter run.  VanDeMortel, who holds the school record in both the 600-meter and 800-meter race , finished the event in 1:58.15, just missing the top ranking by less than one second.

Sophomore Jonny Schmidt (Clarence Center, N.Y./Clarence) paced the Wildcats on the track, finishing eighth place in the 500-meter dash. Schmidt, who bested his own record in this event last week (1:10.47), finished today's race just shy of his benchmark with a time of 1:10.80.  His teammate Mike Capestrani (Jamestown, N.Y./Jamestown) finished just behind him in 10th place.  Capestrani, a 6-foot-1 junior, crossed the finish line in 1:11.47.
 
Rookie Josh Bodnar (Fillmore, N.Y./Fillmore), a member of the Wildcat record-holding distance medley relay squad, had a strong ninth-place finish in the 1,000-meter race with a time of 2:48.94.  He added another top-20 finish in the 3,000-meter run, running the event in 9:38.04, placing 12th out of 27 entrants.
 
Also on the track in the 200-meter event, senior sprinter Nico Jemmison (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooklyn Generation) dashed to a 12th-place finish out of 56 competing athletes.  The veteran Wildcat darted across the finish line in 23.63 seconds.
 
In field events, the Wildcats were paced today by senior thrower Jonathan Dygert (Springville, N.Y./Springville-Griffith) who finished in 21st place in the weight throw with a heave of 11.43 meters.  He also competed in the shot put with a toss of 10.01 meters alongside teammate Andrew Strobele (Akron, N.Y./Akron).  Strobele, who took part in this event last weekend, bettered his previous score (8.91 meters) with a throw of 9.18 meters today.
 
In relay action, Jemmison, Drew Greenaway (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooklyn, Generation), Justin Petrocy (Elma, N.Y./University at Buffalo), and Tyler Compo (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) made up Daemen's 4x200-meter relay entry.  The quartet finished in seventh place with a time of 1:39.23.
 
The Wildcats are back in action at the Robert J. Kane Invitational scheduled for Sunday, February 12; the meet will take place on the Cornell University campus located in Ithaca, N.Y.
 
For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen men's and women's track and field teams, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenTRACK on Twitter.