Distance runner Aidan O'Reilly placed first in the 1,600-meter and 1,000-meter races Saturday as the Lions won a tri-meet at Ohio State.

The Lions finished the meet with 59 points, Pitt scored 57 and Ohio State had 55. Tennessee also had a team competing in the meet, but decided not to score its athletes.

O'Reilly ran the 1,600 in 4:10.10, an IC4A Championship qualifying time, and 2:28.84 in the 1,000.

"The mile I led from the start," O'Reilly said.

O'Reilly said he was passed by an Ohio State runner on the next to the last lap, but immediately re-passed him. O'Reilly was not sure how well he would run in the 1,000 after running the 1,600, but said he felt good early in the race. Then he got boxed in.

"With a lap to go, I got an opening and I just went for it," O'Reilly said.

Coach Harry Groves expected the team to score more points in the meet, but he said in a meet with that much competition each team is strong in a certain area of events.

"It was a meet of all or nothing," Groves said. "You got points in the event, or you didn't get any."

Shot putters C.J. Hunter and Phil Caraher took the first and second places in their event. Hunter tossed another NCAA qualifier at 61' 4 1/4" and Caraher tossed for 59' 7", a personal record.

Since Hunter has already qualified for NCAAs, he is now basically working out in the weight room. However, he continues to compete to help the team win meets. He expects to attain NCAA qualifying distances for the remainder of the season.

"My throws get better as the year goes on, that's the whole point," Hunter said.

Caraher's second-place toss was good enough to qualify him for the IC4A, Championships and it achieved the provisional NCAA qualifying standard. The provisional qualifying standard means that if enough athletes do not qualify for NCAAs at 60' 6", he may be chosen to fill in one of the empty spaces.

Caraher's toss also beat his old personal record of 57' 6".

"I was looking for a 57 or 58-foot throw," he said.

Caraher said he should be able to qualify for nationals without any trouble because he is stronger now than he was last year at this time.

Steve Brown ran a 14:38.04 for first place in the 5,000-meter and also qualified for IC4As.

"My goal is to qualify for nationals in the 5, 000," he said.

Brown said he probably won't run the 5,000 again until February because it is such a long race to run indoors. He said that in preparing to qualify for nationals in a particular event, a runner will run distances around his event, such as Brown running the 3,000-meter in next week's meet. He said he will run shorter events to improve his speed.

Jeff Novak finished second in the 5,000. Brown said Novak led the race for the first mile, then he took over. Brown added that Novak was his only real competitor in the race.

Doug Walter won the 3,000-meter race in 8:22.13. He also qualified for IC4As.

Other top finishers for the Lions were Mason Ternay, who qualified for IC4As in the pole vault at a height of 16' 5 1/2". Mark Algeri finished the event in third place at 15' 11 3/4".

Ricardo Hall placed second in the long jump at 22' 1 3/4" and second in the triple jump at 49' 3 3/4". Marshall Cannon was third in the long jump at 21' 8 1/4" and Tim Webb finished fourth in the high jump with 6' 6".

Greg Rogers finished fourth in the 55-meter high hurdles in 7.74. Joe Stakbauer placed second in the 800-meter in 1:55.22 and Jon Strange placed third in the 600-meter in 1: 22.16.