The Big Red men's track & field squad kicked off the outdoor portion of their season this weekend at the Emory Invitational held in Atlanta, Ga. Denison finished 17th out of 28 teams with 16 points.

DU recorded top-8 finishes in three events over the course of the two-day event. Junior Bryan Fowler paced Denison with a second-place finish in the javelin with a toss of 143'11". Fresh off his first-ever All-American honor, junior Wallace Branche made a quick return to the track on Saturday afternoon. Branche, who earned All-American honors in the indoor triple jump a week ago, placed third in the event with a mark of 45'9.75".

Junior Sam Beech rounded out the scoring with a seventh-place finish in Friday's 10,000-meter event. Beech clocked in with a time of 32:48.60 which landed him 10th on the school's top performers list.

Mitch Keller paced a trio of DU runners in the 800, finishing 11th with a time of 1:58.37. Mitch's twin brother Ryan Keller (2:01.59) and freshman Chris Todd (2:03.98) also competed in the event. Those three teamed up with Ian Mulmat to place 15th in the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:31.57.

Emory won the event with 96 points, while Albany State (80), Cedarville (67), Lindsey Wilson (56) and Columbus State (53) rounded out the top five.

Denison returns to competition next weekend at the Carnegie Mellon Mini Invitational held in Pittsburgh, Pa.