UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO ATHLETICS
PRINCETON, N.J. — A number of personal bests were set by University at Buffalo track and field student-athletes on the final day of the Larry Ellis Invitational hosted by Princeton University on Saturday. The Bulls faced off against very strong competition and it was a good preview of the East Regional Competition that UB will see at the end of May at NCAA East Prelims at UCF.
Selina Von Jackowski ran a season-best 13.68 to win the 100m high hurdles – ranking her fourth in an extremely competitive group in the MAC. She is looking to not only match her second place performance at outdoor MACs last year, but also a return trip to the NCAA East Preliminary meet.
Freshman Jhada Francis ran personal best marks in the 100m and 200m. In the 800m, Sydney March ran her best time in her collegiate career thus far, 2:14.13. Mariah Howard ran a season-best time of 1:05.26 in the 400m hurdles.
In the throws, Joanna Hallisy had her best performance of the year so far, placing fifth of 22 with a distance of 14.09m/46’2.75″.
The men also had some personal best races on the track. In the 1500m, Dan Muldoon broke away from the pack with 300m to go, opening up a 30m gap on the field, winning his heat in a personal-best time of 3:56.31 to place fourth of 50. In addition, Caleb Covell ran a personal best of 3:56.62, placing fifth overall of the 50 competitors. Both Muldoon and Covell moved up on the MAC list to eighth and tenth, respectively.
Mitchell Moore placed second in the 400m hurdles after establishing a lead over the first seven hurdles. With a minor stutter on the eighth hurdle, he rebounded but was narrowly out-leaned for the win. Moore continues to hold the top spot in the MAC and is 34th in the NCAA East Region.
In the field events, Sam Wray was the first collegiate finisher in the men’s discus throw, edging out second by just 6cm. Wray had a very consistent series of throws and is going to be a strong contender in the MAC.
Devon Patterson was the first collegiate finisher in the men’s shot put as well.
Freshman Brandon Burke set a season-best mark of 6’8.25″ in the high jump to reach the MAC auto qualifying mark and now ranks third in the MAC. Burke placed second in a very tight competition. He cleared his opening height of 6’6.25″, which led to his second-place finish over five other competitors that cleared the same height.
The Bulls are home next week for the UB Invite which will take place at UB Stadium on Saturday.
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