NEW YORK, NY- One Wheaton College track & field record fell and one NCAA Championship provisional standard was met over the weekend as the Lyons sent a handful of men and women to the two-day New Balance Collegiate Invitational, which came to an end on Saturday in the New York City Armory. Wheaton was one of a small number of Division III institutions represented, as the field was dominated by more than 60 Division I schools.

The Lyon men scored three points to tie Division I University of Buffalo and Division II Shippensburg University for 43rd place, as 48 squads tallied points. Division I Baylor University won the meet with 65 points. On the women's side, Texas A&M University won with 72 points.

Sophomore Erin Neville (North Providence, RI/La Salle Academy) provisionally qualified for the national meet by springing 5′ 6 1/2″ in the high jump, falling just 3/4″ shy of automatic qualification while taking fifth place out of 22 in the event. Neville's height tied for third among all competitors, as the remaining 21 hailed from Division I institutions.

During the triple jump, freshman Ashley Dell'Aira (Shoreham, NY/Shoreham-Wading River) nearly met an NCAA standard, tossing herself 36′ 6 3/4″ to come within 1 1/2″ of a national meet mark. Classmate Mickey Jusme (Providence, RI/Classical) flew 36′ 1 1/2″.

The Lyon men set a school record in the 4×200-meter relay, as the foursome clocked in at 1:29.13 to shave 1.20 seconds off the old program mark. Senior Michael Wright (Baldwin, NY/Uniondale), junior Mark Cimino (Danbury, CT/Danbury), sophomore Mark Williamson (Vienna, VA/James Madison) and freshman Cailean Robinson (Newton, MA/Phillips Exeter Academy) had also set the previous Wheaton standard on January 11. The quartet took sixth out of 14 teams, coming within 1.18 seconds of the runner-up foursome.

Robinson narrowly missed a provisional time in the 60-meter dash, falling short by 0.01 seconds during a 6.96 finish. He placed 39th out of 99 runners, while Cimino and Wright were also each among the top 60.

During the 400-meter dash preliminaries, Williamson was second among four runners in his heat with a time of 49.61, which was 0.43 ticks off an NCAA time. Junior Merzudin Ibric (Revere, MA/Phillips Academy) was second in his five-athlete heat, beating a pair of Division I competitors.

Wheaton's squads return to action on Friday when the two-day Valentine Invitational begins at Boston University.