This weekend, Marquette runners raced San Francisco, Palo Alto and Cincinnati chasing Big East and NCAA Regional qualifying marks as the outdoor season gets underway.

Oliver Nikoloff Invitational

This meet featured the most members of the team making their season debuts. Two weeks ago, it was the field events that saw most of the action at the USF Bulls invitational in Tampa, Fla.

Freshman Cody Haberkorn is coming off an indoor track season in which he only raced three times. He was one of the team’s top five runners consistently throughout the cross-country season, which makes it no surprise to see him excel in his first 10,000-meter run on the track. He was Marquette’s top finisher in sixth (31:32.15), senior A.J. Gedwill crossed the finish line shortly after in ninth. Gedwill’s time of 31:52.84 is more than a minute better than his personal best of 33:04.24 run at the same meet in 2012.

Marquette took the top three places in the women’s 10,000-meter run, as sophomore Elisia Meyle led the charge with a personal best of 36:47.77 in her longest race since last May. Senior Christina Sliepka and junior Hannah Frett finished in second and third, respectively.

First-year law student Tyler Leverington finished sixth for Marquette in 3:55.58 in the 1,500-meter run. He started out in 2:10 through 800 meters, which came back to hurt him down the stretch.

Sophomore William Koeck fell short of the Marquette record in the hammer throw, but it was not as close as his season debut, in which he fell short of the record by a centimeter. He threw 55.25 meters to finish third overall Saturday.

Sophomore Samantha Kennedy was able to move up to sixth on the Golden Eagles’ all-time list, as her throw of 115 feet and 8 inches in the javelin got her the victory over five other competitors.

Junior Michael Saindon put down a Big East qualifying mark in the high jump with his leap of 2.03 meters.

San Francisco State Distance Carnival

Seniors Patrick Maag and Connor Callahan made their season debuts on the West Coast. The race started out well for the two Golden Eagles, but they finished 19th and 20th, respectively, in their heat of 25 runners. Maag’s time of 14:37.32 is a Big East qualifying mark. Callahan’s 14:42.62 is just 2.62 seconds off from qualifying.

Stanford Invitational

Senior Jack Hackett was one of 44 runners in the second section of the men’s 10,000-meter run. As rain started to fall at Cobb Track and Angell Field, he looked perfect through the 5,000-meter mark as Oregon’s Mac Fleet was pacing the race with 400-meter laps in the low-70 second range. As the pack started to string out 20 minutes into the race, Hackett fell behind. It was his first collegiate race since cross-country season and his first time on the track since May. He is in top physical form but could use a race or two to get used to the track again.