Spurred on by second place finishes in both the decathlon and the long jump, the Valparaiso University men's track and field team moved up into fourth place on Friday, after two days of the Mid-Continent Conference Championships being held in Macomb, Ill.

Western Illinois leads the meet through seven events with 74 points, while Oral Roberts is ten points behind in second place. Southern Utah has tallied 54 points with the Crusaders scoring 32 points. UMKC is fifth with 28 points and Chicago State has 21 points.

Valpo had three scorers in the decathlon, led by Joe Dwyer's (Lansing, Ill./TF South H.S.) runner-up finish with 5,059 points, second most in school history. Jed Reisetter (Lewiston, Minn./Lewiston-Altura H.S.) made his move over the final three events to finish fifth with 4,711 points, while Jeff Moscinski (Rockford, Ill./Christian Life H.S.) was eighth with 4,262 points.

Dwyer, competing in his first-ever decathlon, turned in four fourth place finishes in five events on Friday, and tied for fifth in the high jump, clearing 8'7 ½". He turned in a time of 17.12 seconds in the 110 hurdles, threw the discus 82'10", and the javelin 112'11". In the final event, the junior crossed the finish line of the 1,500m run in a time of 5:03.91.

Reisetter finished the decathlon with a bang, placing third in the pole vault, clearing 9'3 ¼". He then won the javelin by more than ten feet with a toss of 160'4" and cruised to a 36-second victory in the 1,500m in 4:26.07. Moscinski placed third in the discus (83'5") and was runner-up to Reisetter in the 1,500m (5:02.43).

In other finals on Friday, Joshua Lee (Yellow Jacket, Colo./Montezuma-Cortez H.S.) finished in second place in the long jump with a leap of 22'9 ¾", 8 ½" off of the lead. Todd Goodrick (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Hills H.S.) also scored for the Brown and Gold in the field events with his seventh place finish in the shot put with a toss of 46'7 ¼".

On the oval, Matt Blume (Logansport, Ind./Pioneer H.S.) and Doug Brown (Bluffton, Ohio/Allen East H.S.) combined to score seven points for the Crusaders. Blume was fourth with a personal best time of 9:29.62, while Brown finished seventh in 9:41.54.

Day two also meant preliminary heats in the sprints. Valpo placed three hurdlers into the finals in the 110m event. Sean Barfield (University Place, Wash./Curtis H.S.) led the Crusader contingent with a time of 15.26 seconds, while Brian Schultz (Sheboygan, Wis./South H.S.) turned in a time of 15.38 seconds and Nathanael Noon (Birmingham, Ala./John Carroll H.S.) qualified in 15.49 seconds.

No Crusaders qualified for the finals in the 400m dash with Raphael Awoseyin (Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria/Greater Tomorrow S.S.) turning in Valpo's fastest time of 51.12 seconds. The Brown and Gold also failed to qualify individuals in the 100m where Lee was the fastest on the team with a time of 11.41 seconds.

In the 400m hurdles, Adam Wierciak (Ottawa, Ill./Marquette H.S.) will represent Valparaiso in the finals after a qualifying time of 55.92 seconds. The final event in prelims was the 200m where Awoseyin was Valpo's fastest runner with a time of 22.79 seconds but failed to advance.

The championships will conclude on Saturday with field events beginning at 10 a.m. with running finals starting at 12:30 p.m.