The Eastern men’s track team finished fourth out of seven teams at the Pacesetter Invitational held Friday and Saturday at Indiana State University.

Despite their overall team standings, the Panthers did have many strong individual performances.

James Benson, a junior from Champaign, finished fourth overall in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.77 seconds. Raushawn Render had the second-highest time for the Panthers at 11.01 seconds, which earned him a ninth-place finish.

In the 200-meter dash finals, Toby Atawo was the lone Panther to compete in the 25-man field. Atawo’s time of 21.85 earned him a sixth-place finish.

Andy Derks placed third in the 1,500-meter run. The Rochester native had a time of 3:58.87, which was slightly over his personal best of 3:55.33 set it the 2000 Ohio Valley Conference Championships. Dan Mackey finished sixth for the Panthers with a time of 4:03.91. Adam Marriott and John Sipple were in the middle of the 22-person pack with times of 4:09.33 and 4:10.37 respectively.

Jeff Jonatis took home first place for the Panthers in the men’s 5,000-meter run. His time of 15:7.08 was more than eight second ahead of his closest competitor. The first place finish by Jonaitis earned the Panthers 10 team points toward the overall standings. Junior Josh Vance gave the Panthers two top five finishers with his time of 15:25.05.

In the 110-meter hurdles Greg Belger and Jermaine Jones both finished in the top five. Belger finished in 14.5 seconds, which earned him a second-place finish. Jones rounded out the top five with a time of 14.67. Jones (43.11) and Belger (53.51) finished second and third in the 400-meter hurdles.

The Panther 400-meter relay team of Benson, Render, Belger and Atawo finished in third place behind Ball State and Indiana State with a time of 41.44 seconds.