PHILADELPHIA- The La Salle men's track and field team opened up their outdoor season with a strong showing on Saturday at the Philadelphia Classic hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field. The Explorers competed in nine events and sent 24 competitors to Franklin Field.
 
Freshman Justin Guerre competed in two events and finished on the metal stand for both of them. Starting off the day with the 100 meters Guerre ran an 11.04 to finish first among the ten competitors in the event. Later he would return to run in the 200 meters event this time running a 22.01 which was good for second place of 13 competitors, just .14 seconds off of the winner. His time in the 200 meters took over 1.5 seconds off his previous best time in college. Joining him in the 200 meter was junior Joshua Byrd who ran a 22.79 for a sixth place finish.
 
A pair of sophomores made their way onto the podium in the 800 meter run. Sophomore Chris Sanders ran a 1:53.57 to finish in first place out of 16 competitors, over four seconds ahead of the nearest runner. Joining him on the podium was freshman Collin Pierlott who ran a 1:58.28 for a third place finish. Dan Rosenblatt finished in seventh thanks to a time of 2:00.35 and Gregory Dix finished in 11^th with a time of 2:03.81.
 
Josh Byrd led four Explorers in the 400 meter race. Byrd finished in second with a time of 51.37 which was just 1.01 seconds off of the winner. Cris Hunter turned in a time of 52.04 for fifth place while Michael Hagan and Dallas Penny ran 53.47 and 55.03 times respectively.
 
Junior Ian Barnhill turned in the fastest time of three La Salle runners in the 1500 meters race. Barnhill ran a personal record time of 4:02.63 to finish in fifth place of 16 runners. Alex Gallo and Ryan Magnus also ran in the event finishing in 4:24.00 and 4:29.60 respectively.
 
Nine Explorers entered the 41 man field for the 5000 meters. Freshman Bradley Heuer bested his previous PR time with a 14:33.25 time to finish in ninth place overall. Joining him in breaking 15 minutes was graduate student Vince Perozze in 14:52.83 and freshman Chris Berry in 14:56.46 to finish in 11^th and 12^th. Brendan Robertson also turned in a top 20 time of 15:08.47. Tim Flanagan and Rodrigo Nunez finished consecutively with times of 15:16.43 and 15:16.44. Ben Pershall (15:24.30), Nick LeFavor (15:18.29), and Trent Mangold (16:14.02) rounded out the event for La Salle.
 
Nick Della Vecchia competed in the 400 meter hurdles finishing in sixth place with a time of 59.87.
 
The men's 4x400 meter relay team finished in 3:26.55 to finish second of the three teams running.
 
The Explorers return to action next weekend as they head to New York for the Stony Brook Invitational on Saturday.