Continuing their trend of impressive performances, the men’s indoor track and field team had another good showing this weekend at their meets at Syracuse University and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
With two champions and a number of runner-up performances at RIT, the team is continuing to improve. “We had our best weekend in terms of performance,” head coach John Izzo said.
Sophomore Mike Burgstrom won the weight throw with a distance of 15.35 meters. The 4×200-meter relay team was also first with a time of 1:34.22.
“Lots of guys are starting to step up in all disciplines,” captain and senior Matt Tierney said.
Burgstrom also placed fourth in the weight throw. Sophomore Eric Scheele was second in the shot and third in the weight throw, and senior Jake Tyksinski was the weight throw runner-up.
Among the runners, both freshmen Malik Sams and Peter Iwanowicz made the finals in the 55-meter hurdles, and Sams placed second with a time of 8.16. Iwanowicz had a huge personal best, racing about 0.4 seconds faster than he ever has before.
Freshman Marquis Turner was third in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.64, and sophomore Max Ehrmann was fifth with a time of 6.81. Sophomore Justin Papariella was third in the 200-meter with a time of 23.70, and freshman Jon Anista was fourth in the 400-meter, clocking in at 53.39. Freshman Brian Willsey came in sixth with a time of 53.46.
In the longer distances, sophomore Mark Stevens was the runner-up in the mile with a time of 4:23.70 and senior Chris Nolan placed second in the 800-meter run, clocking in at 1:57.41. Junior Brian MacIlvain followed close behind him, placing third with a time of 1:58.69.
The 4×400-meter relay team also had a good race, placing second at 3:33.79.
“Saturday was our first meet with [Division I] competition and we had several good performances that qualified us for States,” Tierney said.
This coming weekend, the Yellowjackets are traveling to Boston for the Boston University Relays meet and to Ithaca for the Cornell University Invitational.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend in terms of more opportunities to qualify,” Izzo said.
“The goal for the next two weekends – all meets being against Division I competition – will be to qualify as many people for States, ECACs and NCAAs,” Tierney said. “If we can take care of business and qualify much of our team for the championship season, we will put ourselves in position to achieve one of our biggest goals this season – to win the conference championships.”
Philbrick can be reached at ephilbrick@campustimes.org.
