Led by senior Max Gerken, who blazed to a league individual title, Colorado College made an emphatic statement in the 3K steeplechase on Friday. 

The Tigers scored 19 of an awarded total of 39 points in the event, climbing into fifth place in the team standings after opening-day competition at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Birmingham, Ala.

While Gerken's time of 9:22.89 beat his nearest challenger by more than 7 seconds and earned 10 points for CC, fellow seniors Michael Dougan and Ben Taber finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in a field of 20 entries. Dougan clocked in with a 10:07.32 while Taber completed the course in a season-best 10:08.89. Freshman Will Richmond also turned in an excellent effort, posting a personal-record 10:54.90 that was good for 14th place. 

"The team really went after it," head coach Ted Castaneda said of the steeplechase contingent. "To get three in the top five is absolutely outstanding."

Junior Matt Schull also made his presence felt, soaring 21 feet, 9 inches in the long jump to take third place and earn his team's other six points at the annual SCAC meet that continues through Saturday on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. By finishing in the top three, he earned all-conference accolades in the event for the second consecutive season.

Schull also qualified for Saturday's finals in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, grabbing fourth overall in Friday's 100 preliminaries with a time of 11.34 seconds as well as third in the 200 at 22.39 seconds.

"It definitely was a very good day for us," said Castaneda. "We had a lot of encouraging things happen. Our strongest day at the conference championships is always the second day, so we're really looking forward to tomorrow."

While failing to qualify for the finals but nevertheless backing up Schull's performances, Colorado College's other sprinters served notice that they'll be a force to be reckoned with in Saturday's relays. Freshman Tyler Green ran a season-best 11.60 in the 100-meter prelims, senior Travis Boccard a 23.98 and sophomore James Olson a 24.78 in their 200-meter heats, and junior Eli Williams a season-best 55.09 in the 400, where Olson added a 55.58.

Taber, meanwhile, fashioned a ninth-place 1:01.27 in the 400 hurdles that left him one spot shy of advancing to Day-2 action, and sophomore Grant Rice wound up 10th in the 10,000 meters at 36:17.26, two positions out of the scoring.