ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's track & field team took the lead in the team standings from the very first event of the meet on Thursday and maintained that advantage to the very end, as the Miners earned their fifth Great Lakes Valley Conference championship in the meet that concluded Saturday at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

The Miners scored 175 points over the three days of competition to win by 60 points over its nearest competitor, Indianapolis and in the process, became the first men's team to capture the GLVC title at its home venue since 2008 and fourth since the first GLVC championship meet in 1996.

S&T also took home two of the major awards following the meet, as head coach Shaun Meinecke was named as the GLVC's Coach of the Year and sophomore Nathan Swadley (Willard, MO/Willard) captured the conference's Field Athlete of the Year award after completing a sweep of the hammer, shot put and discus by taking the discus Saturday, doing so with a school record throw of 173-1 that also surpassed the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying standard.

With the victory in the discus, Swadley became just the second performer in GLVC history to win all three of those particular events in the same conference meet, joining Indianapolis' Austin Hogan as took first in all three in 2019.

Swadley was not the only Miner to win a conference title on Saturday, as Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) tied the GLVC record in the high jump – a mark that had stood since 1999 -- by clearing 6-11 and making an NCAA provisional mark of his own.  He was joined in the scoring column in that event by Aaron Jones (Kansas City, MO/Ruskin), the runner-up who cleared 6-8¼ and Nick Janke (Rolla, MO/Rolla), who went over the bar at 6-2 to place eighth.

Missouri S&T finished with six individual conference championships in the three-day meet, as Hayes Pateidl (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) won the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday and Jadon Kilpack (Hallsville, MO/Hallsville) captured the decathlon title over the first two days.

Garrett Miller (Kearney, MO/Kearney) finished second in the discus and made a provisional mark in the process with his throw of 168-4, while Jarett Johnson (Webb City, MO/Webb City) had a second place performance in the javelin throw with his mark of 195-2 and Aaron Toben (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) was also the runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles in 53.68 seconds.  Ethan Haller (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) took third in the 800-meters with a time of 1:55.28.

The Miners had a fourth place performance by their 4x400-meter relay team of Dakota Doupe (Jones, OK/Jones), Michael Pate (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette), Toben and Alex Staples (River Forest, IL/Oak Park River Forest) as that quartet finished with a time of 3:18.10.

Jones added a fourth place showing in the triple jump and broke the S&T school record in the process with a mark of 48-8¼ and Lucas Rackers (Florissant, MO/St. Louis University HS) was fourth in the 1,500-meters in 3:53.29, while Dane Huck (Warrenton, MO/Warrenton) was fifth in the javelin with his mark of 159-7 as was Staples in the 800-meters in 1:56 flat.

S&T's 4x100-meter relay team of Toben, Bailey Crone (Collinsville, IL/Collinsville), Augustine Bindbeutel (St. Louis, MO/Christian Brothers College HS) and Luke Allen (Jefferson City, MO/Calvary Lutheran) had a sixth place finish in that relay in 42.94 seconds.

Patiedl was seventh in the 5,000-meters in 15:04.79 and Allen finished seventh in the triple jump Saturday with a leap of 45-9, while Eric Brice (St. Louis, MO/Cardinal Ritter College Prep) was right behind him at 45-8½.  Matt Weston also had an eighth place showing in the discus at 143-9.

Nathan Gillespie (Enterprise, AL/Enterprise) was named as Missouri S&T's honoree for the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award following the meet.