Rochester Men Top the Field at the UR Alumni Invitational

PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – The University of Rochester men's track & field team defeated six other teams to take the top spot in the team standings at the UR Alumni Invitational on Sunday at Fauver Stadium.

Behind eight first-place results and 21 top-three finishes, the Yellowjackets scored 238.5 points to top the leaderboard, with SUNY Brockport in second with 191.5 points, and RIT rounding out the top-three squads with 91 points.

Aadit Jain earned both of Rochester's victories in the field events, winning both the high jump and long jump. Jain led four 'Jackets in the top eight of the long jump with a height of 1.93m, an All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships (AARTFC) qualifier, while

Ray Watkins tied for third (1.73m), and

Theo Mueller and

Tate Finger finished seventh and eighth, respectively, each with a height of 1.68m.

In the long jump, Jain was one of three 'Jackets in the top five, winning the event with a leap of 6.83m, another AARTFC qualifier.

Oliver Annon finished third with a new personal-best jump of 6.52m, while

Austin Lansey came in fifth with a 6.36m jump.

On the track, Annon got Rochester's day started with the 4x100-meter relay, helping URochester's relay team of

Kyle Kelsey, Finger and Watkins, along with Annon, finish first with a time of 44.30 seconds.

Owen Bernstein and

Zach Terrano then went 1-2 in the 1,500 meters, with Bernstein crossing the finish line in first place with a time of 4:04.43, while Terrano came in second with a time of 4:04.92, a new PR.

Elijah VanHoover won the 110-meter hurdles with a PR and AARTFC-qualifying time of 15.41 seconds, and also led a trio of 'Jackets in the 400-meter hurdles. VanHoover added another PR in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing second with a time of 56.70 seconds, while

Greg Palma took second (57.36s) and

Ivan Wolf-Mialky took fifth (58.15s).

Barack Abdallah scored Rochester's next event win in the 100 meters, clocking in with a time of 10.92 seconds, an AARTFC qualifier. Abdallah was joined by

William Stiska (2nd, 10.99s) and

Diego De Los Santos (5th, 11.13s) in the 100 meters, and the trio also notched top-eight finishes in the 200 meters.

Stiska led the trio with a second-place finish in the 200 meters, crossing the finish line in 22.48 seconds, while Abdallah took fifth with a time of 22.76 seconds. And after notching a PR in the 100 meters, De Los Santos placed eighth with a time of 23.06 seconds in the 200 meters.

Austin Skeete won the 800 meters with a time of 1:57.09, narrowly beating out

Jacob Bernd, who clocked in at 1:57.70 in second place.

Jack Bunaes then made it three 'Jackets in the top five, finishing fifth with a time of 1:59.40.

Joe Berry earned Rochester's final first-place finish of the day in the 5,000 meters, topping the field with a time of 15:13.50.

Sam Cohen added a second-place result with a time of 15:18.68, while

Gus Smith placed eighth with a time of 15:54.48.

Elsewhere on the track,

Evan Bryant led a trio of 'Jackets who scored in the 400 meters, with Bryant pacing the trio with a fifth-place finish and time of 51.35 seconds. Max Freeman came in right behind Bryant in sixth (51.77s), while

Henry Hasselbacher came in behind Freeman in seventh (51.81s).

Bryant and Hasselbacher then ran on Rochester's 4x400-meter relay, running to a third-place result alongside

Jaubert Black and Palma with a time of 3:26.51. UR's 'B' relay also ran in the event, with

Owen Hatungimana, Wolf-Mialky,

Tyler Bernstein and Abdallah combining for a fourth-place time of 3:31.71.

Armaan Butler notched an AARTFC-qualifying mark in the hammer throw, scoring second place with a 53.41m throw, while

Alex Hermann took fifth and

Ethan Kaufman finished sixth, each with a 48.58m throw.

Hermann and Kaufman also scored in the discus, where

Sean Elliott led four Yellowjackets in the top eight. Elliott came in second with a 43.80m toss, with

Ethan Beer right behind him in third (42.05m). Hermann finished fourth with a 41.91m throw, while Kaufman's 38.73m toss was good for eighth.

Beer also led the 'Jackets in the shot put, hitting the AARTFC-qualifying mark with his 14.90m shot put, good for second place.

In the pole vault,

Cody Reeth paced the Yellowjackets, tying for second place with a height of 3.73m. While in the triple jump, Kelsey was Rochester's top finisher with a 12.39m jump, good for ninth.

URochester next competes at the RIT Friday Night Invite on Friday, April 24, at 2:00 p.m. in Henrietta, NY.