Bombers Claim Fourth Consecutive Empire 8 Men’s T&F Crown in Tie with RIT
Rochester, N.Y. – The 25th-ranked Ithaca men’s track & field team claimed its fourth consecutive Empire 8 indoor title on Sunday having tallied 159 points to tie for first with host Rochester Institute of Technology. Ithaca has won the indoor conference crown seven of the eight times it has been contested.
Winning six of the meet’s 15 events, Ithaca met one NCAA provisional qualifier, matched ECAC qualifying marks in seven events and broke a pair of Empire 8 records, while setting multiple season-bests.
Seniors Max Orenstein (Trumbull/Trumbull, Conn.) and Kyle Devins (Ausable Valley/Peru) earned athlete of the meet honors as Max Orenstein tallied Empire 8 Track Athlete of the Meet and Devins Empire 8 Field Athlete of the Meet.
Devins met the Bombers’ lone NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the long jump with a season-best jump of 7.08 meters to win the event. He also was one of seven second-place finishers for the Bombers as he finished the runner-up in the triple jump with a mark of 13.54 meters.
Freshman Brendan Wilkins (Stonington/Pawcatuck, Conn.) was victorious in the high jump as he qualified for the ECAC Indoor Championships after clearing 1.93 meters to set a new season-best.
Also in the field events, freshman Jarrod Monacelli (Hereford/Parkton, Md.) finished second in the pole vault after clearing a season best 4.10 meters.
Max Orenstein and senior Jeff Wetmore (Maple Grove/Bemus Point) dominated on the track as they went one-two in both the 55 and 200 dashes. The pair rewrote the Empire 8 record in the short sprint with times of 6.51 and 6.52, respectively, while also bettering their previous ECAC qualifying times.
They flip-flopped positions in the 200 as Wetmore was victorious in 22.41 and Max Orenstein finished in second with a time of 22.62, again improving upon their ECAC qualifiers.
The Bombers took the top two spots in the mile run as graduate student William Way (Cheltenham/Glensdale, Pa.) finished first with a personal-record time of 4:25.46 and sophomore Nate Bickell (Annapolis/Annapolis, Md.) placed second in a season-best 4:26.88.
The 1,600 relay team of sophomore Julian Orenstein (Trumbull/Trumbull, Conn.), freshman Brennan Edmonds (Charles O. Dickerson/Ithaca), Wetmore and Max Orenstein led the Bombers to victory in a season-best, ECAC qualifying time of 3:25.59.
Edmonds also finished second in the 400 dash having crossed the line in 51.81, while junior Daniel Craighead (Ithaca/Ithaca) was the runner-up in the 5K in 15:30.87.
Complete Results