Harper advances towards track and field title

The Harper College men's track and field team has done what it needed to do so far to win a third straight NJCAA Division III national title.

Ryan Asta (Barrington) won the national title in the hammer throw on Thursday and finished second in the discus Friday in the three-day meet at Alfred State College in Alfred, N.Y. Today is the final day of competition and Harper coach Renee Zellner said her team is in the title hunt with College of DuPage, Delhi (N.Y.) and the meet hosts.

Vanessa Mensie (Fremd) won two women's individual titles in the hammer (school-record 148-4) and discus (131-8).

Asta threw a meet-record 173-8 in the hammer and teammates Matt Royer and Cornelius Watkins were second and third. Watkins took third in the discus.

Carlos Carabajal took sixth in the pole vault and Isiah Holcombe was fifth in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump. Shareef Chandler-El and Darius Voss went 3-4 in the triple jump, Travis Pruitt was fourth in the long jump and Maxwell Jackson and Tyler Austin took fifth and sixth in the high jump.

Chris Hoffman and Sagar Patel finished sixth and eighth respectively in the 10K.

Chelsea McPherson and Elise Lorenc took fifth and 10th respectively in the women's 10K. Betsy Bailey also took fifth in the discus and sixth in the hammer.