Tom Johnston, tjohnston@qconline.com

Former Moline High School prep Michael Castel made a terrific debut in running the 3,000-meter event at Western Illinois University's 23rd annual Lee Calhoun Memorial Invitational track meet in Macomb this past weekend.

The WIU sophomore set a meet and school record with his 8:34.13 clocking.

Castel won the race by 12 seconds in breaking the former meet mark of 8:38.27 (by Iowa's Thomas Tate in 2009) and the previous program record of 8:37.55 (by Mike McGraw, also set in 2009).