In an event dedicated to Hillsdale College's former track star, Gina Van Laar, three Buffalo runners took away first-place finishes in the Gina Relays.
Sophomore Vanessa Roelofsen set a new personal best with a 51.71-meter javelin throw, which also earned her a first-place finish on Saturday. Roelofsen finished well ahead of the other 42 throwers, as Ohio's Chelsea Stephan was the next closest with a distant 42.24-meter throw.
Also on the women's side, junior Kate Kohout finished first in a field of 71 other runners in the 800-meter run. Kohout's finish in 2:10.88 narrowly beat out Emily Freudenrich of Akron who completed in 2:11.53.
Senior Bryan Weinstein, juniors Roy Richards and Reggie Rucker, and freshman James Graber of the men's 4x100-meter relay team took an impressive first-place finish on Saturday with a 41.29 finish.
"The men's 4x100 team made a real statement," said track head coach Vicki Mitchell. "They beat a good Michigan State team which was very exciting. There was a wind that was real tough at track time that they had to battle through."
The Bulls' 4x100 team not only beat out the Big Ten Conference's Michigan State, but also the likes of fellow Mid-American Conference foes Akron and Ohio in a field of 15 teams.
Junior Brian Heim beat out 33 other competitors in the men's 400-meter hurdles with a 52.17-second run. Heim outran an unattached Ryan Byrne by .38 seconds.
Another top performance belonged to senior thrower Mike Giordano who finished third in a field of 31 in the shot put. He just narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships with his 16.79-meter throw.
Freshman Jake Madonia also competed in the shot put. His 14.87-meter throw was good enough for 11th place in the event.
In the men's triple jump, Higgins took third with a 14.60-meter jump. Freshman Loic Sebuharara finished 12th out of 22 in the same event with a 13.23-meter jump.
The Bulls placed two in the top five in the women's discus throw. Out of 62 throwers, senior Beverly Weyer finished in forth with a 44.38-meter toss and sophomore Tina Villa took fifth in the event with her throw of 44.03 meters.
Villa also placed high in the women's shot put by finishing in sixth of 50 with her throw of 13.73 meters. Weyer also competed in the event as she finished with a 13.20-meter heave which was good enough for 15th place. Fellow teammate sophomore Ekua Mends-Aidoo took part in the shot put as well. Mends-Aidoo finished 28th overall with her toss of 11.61 meters.
Three other Bulls had sixth-place finishes. Senior Jennifer Jezorski finished the women's 1500-meter run in sixth in 4:34.28 in a field of 61 runners. Sophomore Carrie Hinners also took sixth in the women's pole vault with a 3.55-meter leap.
The third Bull to take sixth was Richards in the men's 100-meter dash in 10.84. Teammates Rucker and sophomore Peter Godios also ran in the event. Rucker finished in 22nd with an 11.84 run and Godios took 55th with his 12.03 run out of a 61-runner pool.
Richards also participated in the men's long jump where he finished in eighth-place of a group of 38 jumpers with a leap of 6.98 meters. Three other Bulls also took part. Higgins wound up in 21st with a 6.38-meter jump, Sebuharara took 28th with a 6.23 jump and freshman Chris McAllister's 5.33-meter leap placed him in 35th.
Mitchell was pleased with the results as a whole for the Gina Relays.
"Overall we did pretty well," Mitchell said. "There were good individual performances and there was not any team scoring. It was good to see some individuals with good efforts."
Mitchell felt that this event was a good preview to what the Bulls will be facing at future events against MAC competition.
"The nice thing about this event was the location in Southern Michigan," Mitchell said. "There were a lot of conference schools we were against with all the Michigan schools, Toledo, Akron, Ohio, Ball State and Bowling Green being there. We almost saw every conference school as we prepare to see where we will be standing at the conference championships."
The Buffalo track team next travels to Akron, Ohio on Saturday to take part in the Campbell Wright Open at 12 p.m. After that, the Bulls will head to Toledo, Ohio for the MAC Championships starting on May 11 at 11 a.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
