Bulls have Strong Start to the 2021-22 Season

Friday, December 3

Youngstown, OH

2 p.m.

University at Buffalo

Youngstown State University Icebreaker

Bulls have Strong Start to the 2021-22 Season

12/4/2021 12:26:00 PM | Track and Field

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The University at Buffalo track and field team kicked off their 2021-22 indoor season at the Youngstown State Icebreaker on Friday evening. The Bulls had a strong start to the season with nearly 50 schools traveling to northeast Ohio.

ON THE WOMEN'S SIDE
In the throws, the women came out strong with nearly everyone setting personal best marks. Molly McCreedy won the shot put throwing 49'-11.75"/15.23-meters, just 1-centimeter off her outdoor life-time best. Rachel Donner threw over a 1-meter personal best, placing third in 47'-10.00"/14.58-meters. In the weight throw, Asia Hoyte threw a personal best of 59'-05.75"/18.13-meters breaking her previous meet record of 17.41-meters set in 2019. Hoyte and eventual winner Hunter from Robert Morris battled back and forth each throw, with Hoyte eventually taking second placed. Sophomore Imahni Sinclair placed fifth with a personal best of 55'-02.75"/16.83-meters, and junior transfer student Lizzy Manderson placing seventh in a personal best by over 3 feet in 50'-11.50"/15.53-meters.

The horizontal Jumps group also saw success on the runway. In the long jump, graduate student Samantha Spinella jumped a personal best of 18'-10.00"/5.74-meters to place third overall, Christina Wende was just a half inch shy of her indoor personal best mark jumping 18'-6"/5.64-meters for fifth place with over 40 jumpers in competition. In the women's triple jump, the UB women dominated. Wende won in a new personal best mark of 40'-05.00"/12.32-meters, edging out teammate Kaylah Britt in second place with a mark of 39'-05.25"/12.02-meters. Transfer sophomore Emily Tait placed third in a personal best mark of 38'-07.50"/11.77-meters and Ali Wojciechowski placed fourth in a personal best of 38'-01.50"/11.62-meters.

The vertical Jumps also saw success as Violet Drinkwater opened with a strong jump of 11'-02.50"/3.42-meters. Freshman Zahra Amos made her collegiate debut for the Bulls placing third in 5'-07.25/1.71-meters, just 2-centimeters shy of her lifetime best in a very exciting competition.

On the track, Wende had herself a day placing third in the 60-meter hurdles in her best time in two years running 8.95-seconds in the finals. Priscilla Faa ran a very strong prelim and final in the 60-meter dash, placing fifth in the finals in 7.74-seconds as freshman teammate Greta Rastelli placed sixth. Faa doubled back placing second in the 200-meter dash in an indoor personal best of 24.94-second, a time that now ranks sixth in program history. Travasia Singletary placed ninth in the 69 women field with a personal best mark of 25.83-seconds. Katriel Perrier had a career best season opener placing eighth of 51 women in the 400-meter dash in 58.73-seconds. Jade Dennis placed fifth in the 800-meter run and Lily Meek placed ninth in the mile. Freshman Alex Cowley placed sixth of 18 in the women's 3,000-meter run just a few seconds shy of her lifetime best mark.

ON THE MEN'S SIDE
In the throws, the men also had a great start to the season. Caleb Nickens placed second overall in the weight throw with a new personal best mark of 64'-01"/19.53-meters and Andrew Pietrantoni also set a personal best mark of 51'-09"/15.77-meters and placed fifth overall. Jonathan Surdej started his season off well in the shot put placing third with 54'-05"/16.56-meters, and Mark Przybocki had a big personal best of 51'-6.5"/15.71-meters placing eighth.

In the pole vault, Dustin Meyer tied his indoor personal best mark of 14'-11.00"/4.55-meters placing fourth overall. In the men's high jump, All-American Brandon Burke started his indoor season campaign strong with a win with a height of 7'-01.00/2.16-meters. Freshman Calvin Finger placed seventh with a mark of 6'-02.75"/1.90-meters.

On the track the hurdlers got off to a great start with Humphrey Banful running a personal record of 8.17-seconds to place fourth overall in the 60-meter hurdles. Chineme Ononiwu finished with a personal record of 8.28-seconds.

Freshman Jermaine Ewers started with a personal best in the 60-meter dash of 7.01-seconds placing 12^th. Freshman Tal Hamel started with a strong 400-meter dash of 50.29-seconds, while teammate Aaron Essien ran 50.78-seconds, both placing in the top-12 of 47 competitors. Freshman Jean Desir led the Bulls in the 200-meter dash in 22.86-seconds.

"Overall, this was a very strong start for the teams," stated Head Coach Vicki Mitchell. "It also showed us many areas that we can continue to improve and grow over the next four weeks before our next meet. We know the MAC is going to be extremely competitive. Everything we focus on at practice is to prepare us for competing strong at the MAC Championships at the end of February. Yesterday showed us we are going to be making our mark on the MAC this season."

For complete invite results, click here.

UP NEXT
The Bulls are back in competition after the new year at the University of Akron Quad Meet on Friday, Jan. 14.