The men?s track and field team continued its strong start, scoring 161.50 points to win the nine-team 2001 UR Alumni Invitational last Saturday.
Senior co-captain Jon Coyles fought through sickness to win the 400-meter run in 50.21 seconds and place second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.63 seconds.
?A number of our guys weren?t feeling very well,? coach John Izzo said. ?Coyles and [junior] Justin Lamontagne were under the weather, so we thought they performed admirably under the circumstances.?
Coyles also led the 4×100-meter relay team ? which included sophomores John Breedy and Brian Strand-berg and senior Andy Locke ? to a winning time of 43.03 seconds.
?We?re going to run much faster than that,? Izzo said. ?I think we?ll break 42 seconds.?
Juniors Damien Leonard, Andy MacMillan and John Feroleto and sophomore Justin Panarese ran the 4×800-meter relay in 8 minutes, 27.10 seconds to take third place.
Lamontagne placed third in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 57.56 seconds.
Locke finished third in the 200-meter dash in 22.69 seconds. He also ran the 100-meter dash in 11.26 seconds to take second place.
Junior Ayaz Abdulla won the triple jump with a distance of 43 feet, 9.75 inches
and leaped 20 feet, 7.75 inches to place second in the long jump.
?[Ayaz] had an excellent triple jump,? Izzo said. ?Heading into the later meets in the season as the weather warms up, he?ll be outstanding.?
The Yellowjackets dominated the javelin throw, sweeping the top three spots.
Senior Darren Gaul threw the javelin 177 feet to win in his first meet of the year. Junior Dan Levine and sophomore Stephen Duszlak each improved by more than ten feet, throwing 156 feet, one inch and 155 feet, five inches to take second and third, respectively.
?Our javelin throwing is very deep,? Izzo said. ?[Darren] should be a force at the state level, possibly beyond.?
Freshman Alex Voetsch placed second in the 800-meter run in 1:59.03, and sophomore Dave Messenheimer took second place in the 5,000, finishing in 15:45.77.
?In our middle and long distance running we?re still working really hard,? Izzo said. ?Their legs aren?t as fresh as they could be.?
UR?s meet against SUNY Brockport, St. Lawrence University and SUNY Fredonia that had been rescheduled for Tuesday was cancelled, meaning the team has lost two meets this season.
?[Losing two meets from the schedule] gives us less opportunity to qualify for states and ECAC?s and almost no opportunity, as a coach, to experiment,? Izzo said.
The Yellowjackets travel to Hamilton Saturday for their third meet of the season.
?Our entire focus this week is on getting people qualified,? Izzo said.
