Utica Men Win First E8 Outdoor Track & Field Championship

Utica Men Win First E8 Outdoor Track & Field Championship

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RESULTS | PHOTO GALLERY 

Houghton, NY – The Utica College men's outdoor track and field team earned 165 team points and won the program's first Empire 8 Conference Championship on Saturday at Houghton College. 

Ithaca College placed second with 114 points to beat out Stevens Institute of Technology (105) and the defending champions of St. John Fisher College (93). Nazareth College finished fifth (70), followed by Alfred (27) and Houghton (15).

Utica's Nicodemus Gambill won the men's 100 meter dash with an Empire 8 Championship meet record 10.57, just .06 off his own school-record. Gambill also won the 200 meter dash with a season best time of 21.91. All-American Rob Tutein, who headed into the meet ranked 10th nationally, tied his own school-record and took home first place with a clearance of 2.08 meters in the men's high jump. 

Senior Shane Ruffing placed second in the 110 meter hurdles with a personal best time of 14.95, good for eight team points for the Pioneers. He also shattered his own school-record in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 54.51, good enough for third place overall.  Ruffing added a second place finish in the men's triple jump with a season best distance of 13.16 meters.

Senior Kyle Sikes broke his own school-record with a clearance of 4.40 meters in the men's pole vault to repeat as the Empire 8 Champion. Jordan Smith (Tolland, CT/Tolland High School) added a first place finish in the javelin after he posted a distance of 54.06 meters.

Freshman Tyler Wright added a fourth place finish in the 400 meter hurdles with a personal collegiate best time of 56.46. The Pioneers took home the top three spots in the men's 3000 meter steeple chase.  Wright placed first with a time of 9:41.15, while Tyler Sutton added a season-best time of 10:05.24 and Dan Block also came in with a season-best time of 10:05.92. 

Freshman Keanu Heedram set a new meet record with a toss of 46.22 to take home first place in the men's discuss.  Andrew Russell placed second in the discus with a distance of 44.21. Heedram also placed second in the men's shot put with a distance of 14.41 meters, while Sam Kaczmarek added a third place finish in the shot put with a distance of 14.09 meters.

Utica's Christian St. Amour, Nicodemus Gambill, Kevin Gangemi and Carlton Woodie teamed up to win the 4x100 meter relay with a season-best time of 42.48.

Quayree Bull placed second in the men's long jump with a personal collegiate best leap of 6.49 meters, while Kyle Swiecki added a third place finish in the long jump with a distance of 6.33 meters.

Ithaca senior Aaron Matthias was a runner-up in the 100-meter dash in a time of 10.96 seconds, while senior Jordan Smith clocked a time of 11.21 seconds in the 100 to come in fourth overall.

Senior Andrew Brandt was a runner-up in the high jump at 2.03 meters (6 feet, 8 inches). Junior Larry Cass took second in the hammer throw at 52.18 meters (171' 2").

Four of the top six runners in the 5000-meter run came from Ithaca. Senior Sawyer Hitchcock was the runner-up at 15:13.11, while sophomore Tim Chappell followed in third at 15:27.72. Senior Stephen Gomez completed the event in 15:39.43 to take fifth, and junior Jesse Capellaro was sixth in 15:43.12.

Junior Sean Phillips, seniors Brendan Davis and Larkin Bohanan finished third-to-fifth in the 1,500-meter run. Phillips ran 4:06.07, Davis came in at 4:06.69 and Bohanan clocked 4:08.96.
 
Stevens was led by juniors Neil Forrester and Nicholas Zickgraf and senior Thomas Cunningham who each tallied first place finishes.

Forrester set not only a school record, but the E8 meet record in the shot put, throwing 15.21 meters. The junior also qualified for the ECAC Championship meet next month with his throw. Elsewhere in field events, sophomore Parker Dimock recorded a personal best javelin throw of 51.78 meters, which was good for second place. Additionally, Evan Kainerrecorded a personal best sixth place jump of 6.28m in the long jump.

Zickgraf won the 1,500 meter in 4:05, closing out with final 400 meters time of 56 seconds. Senior Shane Chiaravalle turned in a fine performance in the 400 meter hurdles, notching a school record time of 52.99. The time was good enough to qualify for the ECAC Championships and is currently the fourth fastest in Division III. Chiaravalle also placed third in the 400 meter run with a time of 49.40.

Cunningham took home first place in the 5,000 meters, as he ended the race with a late kick and overtook Hitchcock of Ithaca to turn in a time of 15:06. 

Sophomores Mark VanMarter and Peter Girardi led Fisher on the day.  VanMarter was tabbed as the Conference's Field Athlete of the Meet, while Girardi was named as the Conference's Track Athlete of the Meet. VanMarter earned 26 points on the day, finishing first in both the long jump and the triple jump.  He also cleared 1.93 meters in the high jump to earn third-place in the event.
 
Girardi collected over 20 points on the day.  He set a new Fisher record in the 110-hurdle, winning the event with a time of 14.55 seconds (currently 5th fastest time in NCAA Division III)   He also finished in the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.95 seconds and anchored a 4X400 relay that set a new Fisher record.

James Felice finished second in the 1,500 to pick up eight points, posting a time of 4:05.95. Senior Joe D'Agostino racked up 12 points, placing third in both the 100 (10.97) and 200 (22.97).

Nazareth senior Luis Rivera and sophomore Nick LaBarbera won individual titles and senior Tom Sippie sprinted to a pair of second-place finishes. Rivera repeated as champion in the hammer throw with a heave of 177 feet, 4 inches. He also finished sixth in the discus (138 feet, 5 inches).

LaBarbera outkicked Sippie to the finish line to win the 400-meter dash in :49.04. Sippie was clocked in :49.12 and also finished second in the 200-meter dash in a school-record time of :22.03. LaBarbera was sixth in the 200 (:22.60).

Cory McCarty was the lone Houghton event winner, taking the 800 meter title in 1:55.53 to edge out Alfred sophomore Erik Diehl (1:55.82)

Alfred junior Jeffrey Nunez was third in the hammer throw (46.56), senior Ian Bishop placed fourth in shot put (13.99 meters) and sophomore Matthew Finley was fourth in the triple jump (12.51 meters).