Relay team christens new track with UB record

The Akron Open was teeming with some of the top track and field athletes in the country last weekend as it hosted 700 competitors from 25 different universities to christen the school's brand new facility.

"It's a beautiful facility, a 300-meter track that should be real fast, the field's been laid out nicely, so it's a good opportunity," said Buffalo head coach Vicki Mitchell before the meet.

Mitchell's teams made the most of the track's speed, scoring second in the women's 4x400-meter relay and setting a new school record with third place in the same race for the men.

Coming out strong on the men's side, the Bulls' 4x400-meter relay team made up of freshman Rob McRae, junior Brian Heim, junior Paul Riley, and senior Bryan Weinstein, finished only behind two other schools, managing to break the UB record by three-tenths of a second. The team finished in 3:16.20.

Other individual runners from the men's team also managed to improve. Heim, although finishing ninth in the 400-meter race, earned an InterCollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A)-qualifying mark. His time of 49.25 was also the fastest mark by a Bull in that event this season.

Heim's teammate McRae finished 10th in the same event, but also bettered his IC4A-qualifying time. Mitchell said that she knew that McRae would do well.

"He has been unbelievable in the 400-meter and 500-meter races," Mitchell said.

Rounding out the running for the men's track team, Riley set his own IC4A-qualifying time of 1:54.22 in the 800-meter run.

The men's runners were not the only ones who went to Akron looking to set new standards for themselves. Freshman pole-vaulter Ryan Gregory finished in a seventh-place tie, but also managed to set a season's best mark with a height of 15 feet.

Senior Mike Giordano launched his shot put 54 feet, six inches to land in seventh place and freshman Chris McAllister, who competed in the heptathlon, racked up 3,965 points to finish eighth.

The women's track and field squad performed strongly as well. Like the men's runners, the foursome of senior Stacy Downer, freshman Desiree Rudolph, senior Jen Jezorski, and junior Kate Kohout teamed up for the 4x400-meter relay and set a new season-best time, as they finished in second place with a time of 3:54.89.

Jezorski, who ran in a crowded 800-meter race with 31 other runners, crossed the finish line third and earned herself a place in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships this coming March.

Junior Dana Ventrone tied for sixth in the long jump as she leaped 17 feet, six inches and junior Jessica Lister also placed sixth in the pole-vault event when she cleared the 12 foot, four inch mark. Lister's vault at Akron improved her ECAC mark.

The size of the event put extra pressure on the coaching staff to make certain that all the athletes were ready to compete.

"It's a matter of having the team organized in knowing when they're competing, when they need to warm up, cool down, and where their focus needs to be," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said because there was no team scoring, the athlete's main goals were to go out and better their individual performances.

"This particular meet is not scored, which means you're competing for time and performance marks," Mitchell said.

"We are constantly chasing standards to get qualified for the NCAA championships, and the only way to qualify for those is by performance," Mitchell continued.

Mitchell said that although she felt her team performed well, all the Bulls' athletes feel that they can do better.

"I think if you ask any individual on the team they would say 'Yes, I can do better,' which is the great thing about our sport," Mitchell said. "They're never satisfied and always working hard to get to the next level."

One of the reasons for the strong showings by the Bulls' track and field units is the mixture of young and old, experienced and inexperienced. Both the men and women's teams are very young.

"I think the (youth) of our team combines very nicely with the upperclassmen," Mitchell said.

Buffalo will travel to compete in the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup in University Park, Pa., this Friday and Saturday.