Fisher Wins 2018 E8 Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship
The St. John Fisher College men's track & field team claimed the Empire 8 Conference Indoor Championships at Houghton College's Kerr-Pegula Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. Fisher totaled 161 points to edge out Stevens Institute of Technology by 9.5 points.
Utica College was third with 108.5 points.
Alfred University was next at 28 points, while Houghton College (26) and Nazareth College (19) rounded out the championship.
Fisher's Peter Girardi and Mark VanMarter were both honored by the Empire 8, Girardi winning Men's Track Athlete of the Meet, and VanMarter winning Men's Field Athlete of the meet. It is the second straight year Girardi has won the top athlete honor, while VanMarter won the field honor for the fourth straight year.
Girardi took first place in the 60-meter hurdles event clocking in at 8.11 seconds. This time sets a new facility, meet and Fisher record in the respective event. Eddie Mahana and Kyle Rollins took second and third in the race after posting times of 8.16 and 8.48. Mahana now ranks eighth in the country in the race.
Girardi also posted a first place time of 49.02 seconds in the 400-meter dash. Mahana took sixth in the event with a time of 51.06.
In the 200-meter dash Girardi would pick up the fourth place finish with a 22.70 second time, just one hundredth of a second behind the third place finisher.
VanMarter would post a top mark of 7.09 meters in the long jump event. Rollins would finish second in the event with a best mark of 6.79 meters. VanMarter would also take home two second place spots in the triple jump and high jump events. The high jump event would give VanMarter a new personal record as well as a 26th ranking in the nation.
Rollins would put on a show of his own taking first place finishes in the high jump as well as the triple jump. The freshman jumped an impressive 2.08 meters in the high jump which set a new meet and facility record. Rollins also held the slight edge over his teammate VanMarter in the triple jump with a 14.45 meter leap, good for a new meet, facility and school record.
Stevens boasted seven individual championships en route to its second place team finish.
Alex Kainer took first in both the in 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. In the 200, his time was 21.91, the No. 2 time so far this season in NCAA DIII. It was a school record, meet record and personal best. In the 60, he finished in 6.93 seconds, the 11th-fastest time in NCAA DIII. It is a new school record and personal best.
Nick Zickgraf won titles in both the mile and the 800-meter run. In the mile, his time of 4:17.89 was a new meet record and 4
thconsecutive indoor victory in Empire 8's for that distance. In 800, his winning time was 1:55.65, nearly a second better than the next-closest runner.
Greg Arabagian won both the 5,000- and 3,000- meter races in times of 15:52.48 and 9:02.73, respectively.
Parker Dimock won the weight throw competition with a new personal-best distance of 15.84 meters.
Utica sophomore Keanu Heedram broke the Empire 8 and UC record while placing first in the men's shot put with a throw of 16.25m. His distance currently ranks 11th on the NCAA indoor national qualifying list.
Utica's Christopher Fisk won the men's pole vault with a season best clearance of 4.25m to earn 10 team points for the Pioneers.
Utica's distance medley relay team of Erik Winberg, Nicholas Proper, Samuel Adarkwa and LIam Rodgers stood atop the podium with a time of 10:55.24. Utica's 4x400m relay team of Brendan Moore, Proper, Erik Gleba and Kevin Gangemi also took home first place with 10 team points and a time of 3:22.98.