Shot putter C.J. Hunter and distance runner Steve Brown won their events at the IC4A Championships to lead the Lions to a second place finish.

Hunter tossed 62'5¼" to win the indoor IC4A shot put title for the fourth consecutive time. This is Hunter's seventh IC4A title, including both indoor and outdoor seasons.

"If I hadn't won and had thrown poorly, I'd have been angry," Hunter said.

Hunter added that the team title is the most important aspect of a championship meet.

Brown finished the 5,000-meter run in 13:52.36. Peter Sherry of Georgetown placed second, running the same time as Brown. Brown and Shelly's time beat the meet record of 13:58.55 which was set four years ago.

Brown said he had two goals going into the race -- to win the race and qualify for Nationals. He attained both.

"It was satisfying in that respect," he said.

Brown led the race from the beginning, although he did not really want to be in the lead for the entire race. He said it's hard to lead a race for 25 laps and set a good enough pace to qualify for Nationals.

"It takes a lot out of you mentally. It's tiring," Brown said.

Sherry began to kick hard with about 300-meters to go, but Brown said he was not aware of Sherry's kick and he didn't kick as hard as he could have.

Brown said he heard the spectators cheering, but he did not know why until he saw Sherry cross the finish line right next to him.

Brown also qualified for next weekend's NCAA Championships and ran a personal best, beating his old best of 14:05.

The Lions finished the meet with 56 points, behind defending champion George Mason's 103. Georgetown finished third with 53.

"The team was definitely hurtin' after the first two days," tri-captain Greg Large said.

He added that a lot of people counted the Lions out and didn't expect the team to make a comeback.

Phil Caraher finished the shot put in second place with a toss of 59'4". Pole vaulter Meson Ternay finished in second place, he vaulted 16'6¼". Mark Algeri finished the pole vault in fifth place at a height of 15'6½".

Ricardo Hall and tri-captain Barry Walsh, who was the favorite in the pentathlon, placed fourth and fifth in the event, respectively.

Walsh has been having trouble with his hip and back for about a month. Walsh finished the pentathlon with 3,673 points, much lower than his best performance.

"I thought I would be able to compete. I knew it was going to hurt me, but I didn't know it was going to hurt me that bad," Walsh said. "It just killed me all together," Walsh said. "I couldn't compete at all."

Hall finished the event with a personal best of 3,725 points, this was only his third time ever competing in a pentathlon.

Hall also placed fourth in the triple jump with 49'9¾". Aidan O'Reilly placed fourth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:08.24.

The distance medley relay team of Mike Castillo (¾-mile, 3:03.98), Large (440, 49.68), Mark Anderson (880,1:51.23) and tri-captain Doug Walter (mile, 4:06.5) placed fourth with an overall time of 9:51.94.

"We were hoping to win it, but there were some good teams in there, " Walter said.

The Lions finished the trial race with the fastest time and were expected to win in the finals.

"It just didn't work out," Walter said.

Walter did not go into the meet expecting to run in the distance medley relay. Earlier in the meet Walter was competing in the mile run, but he and the runner behind him were knocked down with only about a quarter-mile left in the race.

"We didn't have much of a prayer to get back into it," Walter said.