Men's Track & Field | 1/26/2018 10:36:00 PM

Results | Schedule

FAIRFAX, Va. – Nearly a year since he last competed in a heptathlon, George Mason senior John Seals picked up right where he left off.

The All-American won the first four events of the heptathlon on Friday on day one of the Patriot Games Invitational at the Field House.

Seals, the Atlantic 10 and school record-holder in the heptathlon, leads the multi-event with 3,170 points heading into Saturday. He last participated in the heptathlon last March at the NCAA Indoor Championships when he finished 14th.

"He is in a good spot for (Saturday), kind of getting the rust off," head coach Andrew Gerard said. "It has been a long time since he has actually gotten in and competed in a multi-event. Yes, he's done a lot of individual events since then, starting off this year. But there is always that rust factor a little bit, doing them all strung together. I thought it was a good first day. He has some work to do second day but I think it will set him up fine for deeper in the season."
Seals, a native of Springfield, Va., started his day with a time of 7.12 in the 60-meter dash. The reigning A-10 heptathlon champ followed with winning the long jump (7.06 meters) and setting a personal-best in the shot put (12.61 meters). He capped off the night by clearing 2.06 meters in the high jump.

He heads into the final three events (60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run) on Saturday leading Johns Hopkins' Grant Mosser (2,596) by nearly 600 points.

The Patriots also swept the only running event on Friday night – the 5,000-meter run. Junior Carolyn Conley finished first on the women's side with a time of 17:51.83. Sophomore Sarah Richart took second in 18:17.71. On the men's side, senior Grayson Morgan won with an indoor personal-best time of 14:53.3. Fellow senior Dustin Jutras was third in 15:09.16.

"Our goal (Friday) was to get a few things done to position us for competing at the A-10 Championships," Gerard said. "Just get qualifiers in a nice, controlled fashion. I think we did that. Grayson looked good, closed his last 1,000 (meters) real well. He had a lot of left. That was quite good. Cari, much better. She came through 3,000 meters faster than she ran 3,000 meters at Navy two weeks ago. Much, much better. Much more composed race and that will set her up nicely for potentially competing in the A10s as well."

The men's heptathlon kicks off Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the long jump. The women's long jump and men's weight throw opens the field events at 10 a.m.