Men's Outdoor Track and Field | 4/12/2018 9:42:00 PM

KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Junior Dave Lauscar (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) opened his first collegiate decathlon in strong fashion on Thursday at the ninth annual Mondschein Multi, hosted by Kutztown University, as he currently occupies fourth place after the first five events of the competition.

Due to the largest field in the event's history - 24 teams and 73 competitors (combined men and women) - the decathlon was broken into two sections - gold and maroon. Lauscar is in fourth place in the Gold Section with a total of 3102 points.

Slippery Rock's Steven Girgash leads the way with 3526 total points but then spots two through six are separated by a mere 79 points. Cortland State's Isaiah Brooks is second with 3128 points while Stevens Institute's Evan Kainer sits in third with 3113 points.

Lauscar started the day with a time of 11.60 in the 100-meter dash, good for sixth out of 17 competitors in the Gold Section. He scored 732 points in the event to get his afternoon underway. He followed with a mark of 6.22 meters in the long jump which put him in third place and added another 635 points to his total.

In event three, Lauscar posted a distance of 9.84 meters in the shot put which was the seventh-best mark and added 476 points. In the high jump, the junior cleared a height of 1.83 meters to grab fourth place and an additional 653 points.

Lauscar, who was tied for second entering the final event of the day, posted a time of 54.83 in the 400-meter dash which put him 12th and nabbed him another 606 points to his total. The finish knocked him down to fourth overall but just 26 points behind Brooks for second place.

Five more events face Lauscar on Friday - the 110-meter hurdles, the discus, the pole vault, the javelin, and the 1500-meter run. Action is slated to get underway at 10:00 a.m.