MAC Championships
Manley, Price and Billian Win Titles As MAC Championships Conclude
5/11/2013 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
AKRON, OH – The University at Buffalo claimed three more individual titles on Saturday as the Mid-American Conference Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships concluded at Akron's Lee R. Jackson Complex.
Sophomore Meghan Manley earned her first MAC title with a victory in the women's 800-meters. Manley won the race in 2:07.41, lowering her season best by nearly two seconds, and winning by 1.20 seconds over Western Michigan's Aisha Hodge. Manley won UB's first league title in the event.
Sophomore Austin Price won the men's triple jump for UB's fifth league title in the event since the Bulls joined the league in 1999. Price, the current UB school record holder in the event, cleared 49-9.75 (15.18m) to win the event by nearly two feet by Miami's John Cantwell (47-11, 14.60m). Tomarris Bell and Doug Hannon also scored in the event for the Bulls. Bell set a season-best mark of 47-8 (14.53m) to place third while Hannon was seventh at 46-6.75 (14.19m). Kamau Halim (2000-01) and Rayshon Higgins (2006-07) previously won two triple jump titles each for the Bulls.
Also claiming his first league title was freshman Ryan Billian in the men's 110-meter hurdles. Billian tied Reggie Rucker's 2007 school record, set when Rucker won UB's last 110-meter hurdles title, in 14.05 seconds. Billian claimed the title by one-hundredth of a second over Central Michigan's Renaldo Powell (14.06). Billian also finished third in the men's 200-meters in 21.59 seconds.
UB's women's relay squads both turned in second-place finishes on Saturday, setting a school record in one and just missing the record in the other. The 4x100-meter squad of Jamiee McClary, Malayah White, Brooklynn Ventura and Crystal Graham set a new mark with their finish in 45.61 seconds, four-hundredths better than the mark set at last season's MAC Championships. The 4x400-meter relay team of Camaria Long, Graham, Donna Jeanty and Manley finished second to Miami (OH) in 3:40.83, taking nearly five seconds off the previous season-best time and two-tenths of a second off the school record.
Ventura finished third in the women's 100-meter hurdles in 13.77 seconds. Jeanty was third in the women's 400-meter hurdles in a season-best 59.75 seconds while Regine Lazard finished seventh in a season-best 1:01.77.
Chris Reape tied for third in the men's high jump at 6-9.50 (2.07m) with Bell finishing sixth at a season-best 6-8 (2.03m).
Women's distance specialist Katie Sanders set her second school record in as many days as she finished fourth in the 5,000-meters in 16:50.56. Sanders lowered Jenny Koeppel's 2004 record by more than seconds and shaved 23 seconds from her top 2013 time.
Women's heptathlon champion Emma Siuciak finished fourth in the one of her signature events, the high jump, as she cleared 5-8.75 (1.75m). For the UB men, Will Cole also had a fourth-place finish in the men's 400-meter hurdles in a season-best 52.22 and Evan Palmer placed fourth in the men's discus with a top toss of 167-8 (51.10m).
The UB women scored their best-ever finish with a third-place showing among the 12 MAC schools. The Bulls, who led after the second day, scored a three-day total of 109.50 points. UB's men took fifth among six teams at 97.50 points. Kent State's women (169) and Akron's men (195) took home the team titles.
Following the meet, the league announced its All-MAC selections. Honored on the men's first team were event champions Jonathan Jones, Billian and Price while Jacob Sunday earned second-team recognition. Manley and Siuciak were named to the women's first team. Taking second-team spots were Graham, Jeanty, Long, McClary, Sanders, Ventura and Malayah White.
Women's final team scores: Kent State 169, Akron 119, Buffalo 109.50, Miami (OH) 105, Eastern Michigan 82.50, Western Michigan 72, Toledo 49, Central Michigan 41.50, Ohio 33.50, Bowling Green 23, Northern Illinois 11, Ball State 4.
Men's final team scores: Akron 195, Kent State 183, Eastern Michigan 142.50, Miami (OH) 125, Buffalo 97.50, Central Michigan 67.
