Berry's men's outdoor track & field squad came ready to compete at the Victor Ice-Breaker Duals Saturday at Valhalla, as the team won the overall meet and also defeated foes in duel scoring.

"This was a great home opener for us and exactly how I hoped we would start the outdoor season," said Berry head coach Luke Syverson. "We had favorable weather for the most part and had a lot of good competition.  Winning the meet was a plus as well. It is a good sign of what we are capable of later in the season if we continue to train consistently and grow together as a team.  This meet always makes me proud of our campus community and team.  It was great having a larger meet and crowd after two years of dealing with Covid restrictions."

The Vikings were first out of 11 teams in the event overall, defeating NCAA D-II programs such as Shorter, Montevallo, and Augusta. In duel scoring, the Vikings easily out-pointed both Centre (101-51) and Oglethorpe (109-18)

Additional highlights for the men include:

• Senior Cameron Bensley won the 1500m with a lifetime personal-best and time that ranks him on Berry's Top 10 All-Time list.  Grady Coppock finished fifth.
• Freshman Alden McDonald won the Pole Vault. Freshman teammates Andrew Rexrode and Connor Johnson finished fourth and seventh.
• Senior Jared Ogle won the Hammer Throw with sophomore teammate Mason Robinson taking second.
• Robinson won the Shot Put with teammates Jared Ogle and Joseph Rampey taking third and fourth.
• Connor Cole won the Men's 400H with teammate Marcus Wilson taking second.
• Freshman Jahari Jones took fourth in both the 100m and 400m with new lifetime personal-bests and times that land him on Berry's Top 10 All-Time list,
• Sophomore Deiondre Wilson took seventh in the 100m with a new lifetime personal-best
• Junior Ben Hanlon won the Men's 3000 Steeplechase
• Freshman Hayden Raikes tied for first in the Men's High Jump

The Vikings will be back in action at Emory March 18-19. "The next couple of meets we get the opportunity to focus on improving individual times and marks. Hosting a meet of this size is always a lot of work as our team expends energy not only on their own performances but also being good hosts," said Coach Syverson.