Monmouth, IL – The Prairie Fire had seven top five finishes last Saturday at the Midwest Indoor Invitational, hosted by Monmouth College.

Knox placed second in three events during the meet, which was not scored.

The men’s distance medley relay team of senior Kevin Box (Naperville, IL, Naperville North) and sophomores Bobby Mueller (Woodridge, IL, Downers Grove South), Gabe Moreno (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg ), and Matt Brongo (Eureka, IL, Eureka) finished second overall to Loras College in 10:57.99.  The time ranks third on the all-time performance list for the event, less than one second behind the second-fastest time of 10:57.22 established during the 2011 Midwest Conference Championships at Grinnell College.  Mueller, Moreno, and Brongo each ran a leg on that relay team.

Saturday’s relay finish was just 2.96 seconds off of school record time of 10:55.03 in the event, which was set in February of 2009 at the Midwest Conference Championships held at Monmouth College.  Box was a member of that relay ream.

Individually, Moreno placed second in the 3K.  His time of 9:13.73 was nearly six seconds faster than the third place finisher from Monmouth College.  The winner, Jonathan Smith of Augustana College, ran the race in a swift 9:01.26.

Senior Rayann Parkinson (Aledo, IL, Aledo) finished second for the Prairie Fire women’s team in the 400 meter dash.  She crossed the finish line in 1:04.73.

The other top five finishers for the women’s team were seniors Emma Swanson (West Des Moines, IA, Valley) and junior Kristi Weller (Cullom, IL, Tri-Point).

Swanson placed third overall in the 800 meter run (2:42.34).  Weller, after qualifying for the finals in the 60 meter dash with a time of 8.47 seconds in the preliminaries, finished fourth in 8.50 seconds.

Junior Joseph Puntoriero (Cheektowaga, NY, Cleveland Hill) placed fourth for the Prairie Fire men in the 300 meter dash with his time of 37.56 seconds.  Senior Peter Michener (Chesterfield, MO, Parkway Central ) also secured a fourth place finish after a distance of 38’ 4 1/4” in the triple jump.

The Prairie Fire squads travel to Bloomington, Illinois to take part in the Titan Open on January 28.  Illinois Wesleyan University is hosting the meet.

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