Atkins Sets Record as Bulls Stampede at Penn State National

Friday, January 31

University Park, PA

4:00 PM / 10:00 AM

Penn State National Invite

Atkins Sets Record as Bulls Stampede at Penn State National

2/1/2020 5:30:00 PM | Track and Field

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The University at Buffalo indoor track and field team competed in the Penn State National Open over the course of two days. During the two day meet, the team continued to show progress as they set season and personal-bests.

DAY ONE RECAP
UB had three Bulls make the triple jump finals. On the men's side, Shevaughn Allen won the Penn State Open and stays undefeated with a distance of 15.50m/50-10.25. Allen narrowly beat out Akron's Dimitrije Novakovic by .75 inches. Nisa Raqib finished with a distance of 12.20m as she surged to third place finish on her last jump of the day just behind Penn State and West Virginia University jumpers. Christina Wende finished seventh just three tenths (11.90m) of meter behind Raqib.

Selina Von Jackowski handled all three rounds of the 60-meter hurdles by breaking her own record and placing second in 8.37. Anthony Clark placed ninth in the 60-meter hurdles as he came back strong in the semifinals, just off his season-best.

Sam Wray threw a season-best distance in the weight throw of 19.23m in an extremely strong field.

The men's distance medley relay ran a very strong race in a time of 10:03.31 as they were barely edged out by William & Mary for third.

Both Armani Merlino (eighth place – 15:07.15) and Scott Loforte (ninth place – 15:09.78) ran great 5k races. Loforte ran a personal-best by over 18 seconds as Merlino had a strong debut.

DAY TWO RECAP
The Bulls had two top-10 finishes in the 400-meter dash. On the women's side Katriel Perrier finished in 10^th out of 25 in a time of 58.29. Gyasi Morris finished eighth out of 24 in a time of 49.85.

David Wolanin earned a personal-best in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.04 as he placed seventh out of 27 runners.

The men had great performances from Caleb Covell, Thomas Flannery and William Hilbert in the 3,000-meter run. Covell earned a season-best time of 8:26.02, good for fourth place. Flannery (eighth place – 8:29.70) and Hilbert (13^th place – 8:31.31) each finished with personal-best times.

The women's 4x400 team earned their season-best time of 3:50.97, while placing first in their heat and beating Binghamton, UMBC and Rider. On the other side, the men's 4x400 team claimed third place in a time of 3:14.89 and passing Georgetown by nearly three seconds. This marks the Bulls' season-best time by almost four seconds.

Perhaps the highlight of the invite was Leon Atkins breaking the UB men's 600-meter dash time and setting a new school record with a time of 1:18.49 while placing third. Atkins broke his own record he established just a season ago (1:18.86).

"This meet was a good test for our team as we continue to prepare for the MAC championships at the end of the month," state head coach Vicki Mitchell. "The Akron Invite and KSU National Qualifier will be the next steps for our team to continue to develop."

UP NEXT
Due to facility renovations, the Bulls will not participate in this year's Spire D-I Invite as it has been canceled. The team will travel to Akron, Ohio to compete in the Akron Invitational on February 7-8 that will begin at 4 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday.