The UB men's and women's track and field teams left the Cornell Upstate Challenge Saturday night with strong second-place finishes in a six-team field.
The UB men finished with 128 points, beaten out by Cornell's 240-point first place finish. On the women's side, the Bulls finished the meet with 165 points, edged out by the Big Red's 210.
Several UB athletes had top finishes in their respective events and qualified for post-season competition.
"We fared well," said head coach Vicki Mitchell. "Cornell is a great stepping-stone for a high level competition. Cornell has a very good team."
On the women's side the Bulls had six first-place finishes. Senior Faith Thompson led the team with her victory in the 20-pound weight throw.
Thompson's distance of 62 feet not only provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA Championships, but it also beat a Barton Hall record. Barton Hall is one of the oldest and most fabled indoor tracks in the nation, and its records are highly prized.
Juniors Jen Jezorski and Sarah Vance also qualified for post-season competition following their respective performances at Cornell.
Both women earned spots at the ECAC Championships with their wins in the 1000-meter run and the indoor shot put. Jezorski won the 1000 in a time of 2 minutes 55.39 seconds and Vance took home first place in the shot, recording a distance of 14 1/4.
In addition to the post-season qualifiers, the women also took first place in three other events, including a one-two finish from senior Jenny Koeppel and junior Kelli O'Brien in the 3000-meter run.
Other winners include junior Charrise Everett in the 60-meter sprint and sophomore Jessica Lister in the pole vault.
The men also competed well at Cornell, turning in three first place finishes on the day.
The Bulls owned the podium in the long jump, taking first, second and third places, led by Junior Todd Joki.
Joki won the event, turning in a distance of 23 feet, 2 inches and barely beating out junior Reggie Rucker, who finished second with a distance of 23 feet, 1 3/4 inches.
Senior Gary Asbach rounded out the top three, turning in a distance of 22 feet 9 inches. Both Joki and Rucker's jumps were good enough to qualify them for the IC4A Championships.
Other winners for the men include sophomore Rayshon Higgins in the triple jump, leaping a distance of 47 feet, 11 inches and freshman Mike Giordano. Giordano won the shot with a distance of 51 feet. With the win, the freshman was the third athlete from the men's team to qualify for IC4A's on the day.
The results were reminiscent of those during last year's competition at the same meet. Buffalo's women placed second in the event last year, just as they did this year, while the men finished third at last year's meet.
After a successful day at Cornell the Bulls will now focus their attention on a highly competitive meet at Penn State.
"Penn State is a very, very high level of competition," said Mitchell. "A number of out athletes will hopefully be preparing to see personal bests and hopefully we can get some of our athletes that haven't qualified for post season competition to qualify at Penn State."
Though the Penn State meet will be highly competitive, there will be no team scoring, much like last year's Penn State Invitational. Individually, however, there are a few athletes who need strong results in order to join their teammates in post-season competition.
The Penn State competition will be a two-day meet. Events will begin on Friday at 4 p.m. and continue through Saturday.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
