RICHMOND, Va. – The Catholic men's track & field team opened the outdoor season on Friday with the Fred Hardy Invitational hosted by Richmond University. The Cardinals recorded eight top-10 finishes on the day to go along with multiple personal bests.

Conor Gross ran a personal best time of 15:23.71 in the 5,000-meter race, placing 16th out of 28 in a field of mostly Division I competition. Gross took over the fifth spot in the program's record book in the event, edging past Brian Reinhart's time of 15:25.47. Six of the top 10 on Catholic's list have come since 2022. 

James Galang and Sebastian Lopez both placed within the top 10 in the 100m dash. Galang secured sixth with a personal-best time of 11.04 while Lopez followed in 10th with a time of 11.24. 

Chilowe Osai placed 10th in the 110m hurdles with a time of 16.35, rounding out a field of seven top competitors who crossed the finish line within a one second of each other. 

Three freshman Cardinals broke into the top 10 in the javelin throw. Caden Lopez led the pack with a 42.55m mark for an eight-place finish. Max Lindung followed with a 40.74m mark for ninth and Alexander Saunders rounded out the crew in 10th with a 37.20m mark.

Catholic's 4x400m relay teams came in fourth and ninth respectively. Nick Troy, Gabe Stypul, Marco Indelicato and Romell Randolph combined to clock a 3:26.89 before Josh Phillips, Colin Matthews, Cayden Drost, and Joseph Sparmo crossed the finish line in 3:39.11.

The Cardinals will make the short trip to Towson, Md. next weekend for a two-day meet starting on Friday, March 28.