Track & Field Dominate Busy Weekend

Friday, February 11

Kent, OH

FRI. 3:30 p.m. | SAT. 10 a.m.

Kent State University National Qualifier

2/13/2022 11:03:00 AM | Track and Field

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo track and field team completed a jam-packed weekend Saturday evening. Some members traveled to Boston, Mass. as the majority of the team went to Kent, Ohio for the Kent State Doug Raymond National Qualifier. The team improved many program top-10 results and their MAC rankings.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY DAVID HEMERY VALENTINE INVITATIONAL
The Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational is one of the premiere invitationals on the east coast for the distance events. Thomas Flannery continued his great season with an outstanding performance in the 3,000-meter run. In a very competitive and physical race, Flannery smashed his personal best and raced to a new school record time of 8:11.38, edging out Ben Cardamone's record of 8:11.90 set at the 2021 Indoor MAC Championships. From the gun he put himself in a great position on the outside of the leaders, as the race progressed, he found himself boxed in along the rail with a lot of jostling with the field. Once he got out, he was able to continue to increase his pace, closing his last 200-meters in 30.73, to place 10^th in his heat, and 54^th of 133 in the field. Flannery improved his personal best time by 5-seconds from just a week ago. He is ranks third in the MAC in the event.

The men's 5,000-meter run was the marquee event, seeing a new American record set by Grant Fisher of the Nike Bowerman TC – his time of 12:53.73 is the first sub-13:00 5k by an American and breaks the previous American record held by Galen Rupp (13:01.26). Moh Ahmed placed second overall breaking the Canadian record in 12:56.87, and Marc Scott set a new European record of 12:57.09. This raced marked the first time that three men all ran sub-13:00 in the same race indoors. Taking advantage of the energy in the arena, senior Scott Loforte raced his way to a personal best of 14:28.48, placing 14^th in his heat. Loforte's time moves him up to third all-time for UB and ranks eighth in the MAC this season. In the men's 800-meter run Johann Matzal raced to a new lifetime personal best running 1:52.26. He was third in his heat, and placed 39^th of 226 competing in the event. Matzal's performance moves him to the fifth all-time for UB in the 800-meter event. He now ranks fourth in the MAC. Cal Puskar, while off his best mark set last weekend in the mile, had an aggressive race through the 800-meter and ultimately faded slightly to a time of 4:21.17.

KENT STATE DOUG RAYMOND NATIONAL QUALIFIER
In the throwing events, Jonathan Surdej won the men's shot put on his final throw, ending out the field throwing 17.11m/56'-01.75", and Mark Przybocki was just shy of his personal best (15.89m) with his eighth place throw of 15.78m/51'-09.25". Caleb Nickens had another strong performance placing second in the weight throw behind Kent State's Jake Wickey (sixth in the NCAA). Nicken's mark was nearly 3-feet ahead of third place. The MAC continues to be the strongest conference in the weight throw, with three men ranked in the top-6 in the NCAA. Rachel Donner led the Bulls in the women's shot put with a seventh place finish and a very strong throw of 14.37m/47'-01.75".

The UB women stole the show in the women's triple jump with four women each setting new personal best marks with strength and depth in the event. Kaylah Britt on her last jump in finals covered 12.48m/40'-11.5" placing second overall behind Akron's Jacqueline Pokuaah (13.11m/43'-00.25") and moving to fourthon the UB all-time list and third in the MAC. Close behind was Christina Wende placing third in 12.40m/40'-08.25", ranking fifth on the UB all-time list and fourth in the MAC. Sophomore transfer Emily Tait reached another personal best of 11.85m/38'-10.50" placing eighth overall. Her mark is eighth all-time for UB, and ranks 12^th in the MAC. Red-shirt freshman Alison Wojciechowski finished 15^th overall with a personal best mark of 11.68m/38'-04.00", good for 10^th in program history and ranks 15^th in the MAC.

Brandon Burke continued to show his dominance in the men's high jump taking another victory with a height of 2.15m/7'-00.50". While already with the win, Burke continued to move the bar up and nearly tied his personal best from 2021 of 2.19-meters.

On the track Friday evening, Christina Wende qualified for the women's 60-meter hurdles finals and placed sixth in finals. Chineme Ononiwu also qualified for finals and placed second behind Shields of Kent State, in 8.24-seconds. The women's 5,000-meter run was the highlight on the track, with Anya Schmitt and Riley Jones placing second and third in the 35 women field. Schmitt's time 17:28.71 and Jones' 17:31.58 are both personal best marks, and rank them 14^th and 15^th in the MAC. In the men's 200-meter dash, Dante Haynes ran a big personal best time of 22.59-seconds placing him 11^th of the 47 competitors.

Saturday's track events also saw several new personal best marks and more individuals climbing up the MAC rankings. Freshman Jermaine Ewers placed sixth in the 60-meter dash finals, which Dante Haynes ran a personal best time just missing qualifying for the finals in a time of 7.10-seconds. Antoinette Miller ran a personal best in the preliminary round of 7.76-seconds, advancing her to finals. In the finals she came back even stronger with another personal best of 7.71-seconds, placing sixth overall. Her mark moves her to 13^th in the MAC, and is seventh all-time in UB history.

In the men's mile, Evan Hilbert ran a very competitive race and tactical race to take the win in a new personal best time of 4:15.29, nearly 4-seconds off his previous best. His race was made more impressive by the negative splits of 2:12.6 through 800-meters, and closing in 2:02.6 taking the lead with 50-meters to go. In the men's 3,000-meter, redshirt freshman Brett Russell won his heat in a personal best time of 8:52.51, placing 12^th of 44 total competitors. Nicholas Taboni also ran a personal best of 8:53.92. In the women's 3,000-meter, senior Lily Meek ran a collegiate best time of 10:22.78 placing sixth of 29, and Meghana Caron ran a personal best time by over 11-seconds in 10:48.77.

The women's 4 x 400m team of Emma Seiders, Katriel Perrier, Zaria Fuller, and Priscilla Faa placed third in a season's best time of 3:53.18, ranking seventh in the MAC.

"With less than two weeks to go to the MAC Championships, the KSU Doug Raymond Qualifier was another step forward for many of the Bulls," stated Head Coach Vicki Mitchell. "The high-level competition at Boston provided the perfect opportunity for the team to establish strong marks two weeks out from the MAC Championships. With KSU hosting the MAC Championships, the meet was an excellent preparatory step to be familiar with the facility and set up."

RESULTS

UP NEXT
The Bulls were originally going to compete at the Kent State Tune-Up, but will now compete at the Al Campbell Invitational hosted by the University of Akron on Friday, Feb. 18^th.