Continuing their weekend road trips, the men's and women's track team tacked on several more top notch individual performances, this time coming at the Penn State's Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup on Saturday.
The team finish was lower than usual; the Buffalo men finished 11th out of a field of 13 scoring 24 points, while the Buffalo women grabbed the ninth spot, scoring 21 points in their field of 17.
"We do travel every weekend and it's not just a half hour away. Penn State is a good four to five hours away," said Bulls' head coach Vicki Mitchell. "Coming back after running on Friday and finishing strong on Saturday, not only is sleep important but proper hydration and good nutrition is very critical."
The weekend was highlighted by a pair of second-place finishes, which also turned out to be Buffalo school records. Senior Reggie Rucker crushed the record in the 55-meter hurdles. Rucker was clocked at 7.33 seconds to break the 2003 mark of 7.73 seconds. Rucker turned in the record-breaking performance in the finals as he finished second behind Pittsburgh's Mike Wray. Rucker now holds both of the Bulls sprint hurdle records after also setting the 60-meter hurdles record two weeks ago.
On the women's side, sophomore long jumper Fatimah Hill broke the record set earlier this season by teammate Patrice Coney. Hill cleared 19-4 to finish behind Penn State's Gayle Hunter 19-9.75. Hill earned an ECAC qualification for her effort.
"I think based on our season so far we know we have several standouts individually that will rise to the occasion and perform very well," Mitchell said. "The consistent athletes that seem to be near the top are really going to be the ones showcased at the conference meets and scoring points for us."
Other top finishers for the women included shot putters senior Sarah Vance and junior Tina Villa. Vance placed third in the event with a toss of 51-5.50 finishing behind two strong Virginia Tech throwers. Villa, meanwhile, snagged a new personal best with her eighth place finish. Villa's toss of 48-6.75 was more than two feet better than her best mark this season.
"We traveled with a smaller group of women for this meet. On the men's side we had a much larger contingent," Mitchell said. "At the conference meet we will have quite a few who will be competing for both the men and women."
Putting in one of the top performances of the weekend, the men's 4x400-meter relay squad earned an IC4A qualifying mark with their fifth-place overall finish. The foursome of freshmen Ezekiel Porter and John Bauman and seniors Brian Heim and Todd Joki finished in 3:17.94, cutting two seconds off of last weekend's time and earning the regional nod. Joki also picked up an IC4A mark in the long jump at 23-4, finishing sixth overall.
"The one thing that will change in terms of training is the volume that we're doing will decrease so that the body is more rested from the heavy training we've been doing," Mitchell said. "We will focus more on what we need to do and we tend to get more excited. We don't want our athletes to get psyched out, just want them to get out there and do what we have been doing best."
Women's distance runner sophomore Mary Veith also set a personal-best and attained an ECAC qualifying mark with her finish in the 3,000-meters. Veith placed seventh in a strong field, clocking in at 9:50.77 in her first race at the distance this season. Buffalo high jumpers also scored points. Sophomore Caitlin Godin placed fifth in the women's event at 5-7 and freshman Eugene Kennedy finished seventh in the men's competition at 6-7.
The Bulls finish the regular season on Friday, Feb. 16 at the Akron Zips Open. The Mid-American Conference Championships, also to be held at Akron, gets underway on Feb. 23.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
