Wrapping up their indoor track season, the men's and women's track and field teams traveled to Kent State energized and prepared to impress at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships.
Despite finishing with undesirable results, many individuals came through to finish with high marks in the final indoor event of the season.
Buffalo's men's team came in last place out of five teams this past weekend, while the women's team finished in fifth place out of 12 teams.
Certain individuals stood out for both teams. Senior thrower Alex Stamatakis beat Eastern Michigan's Gerard Gersham by half a foot in the shot put with a throw of 56-10.75, earning Buffalo's only first place win at the event. His teammate, senior thrower Jake Madonia, came in third with a throw of 56-3.
After missing a week of practice, sophomore hurdler Jamal Norward ran the 60-meter hurdles in 8.27 seconds, finishing third in the finals.
Sophomore jumper Lataya Dixon led the women's team. She cleared 5-7.75 and finished in second in the high jumps.
The 4x400 team, made up of junior sprinters Ezekiel Porter and Matt Armstrong, sophomore sprinter Brandon Giles and freshman sprinter Isaiah Mask also excelled. They finished in second place behind Kent State with a time of 3:13.43, which broke their own school record.
Norward was also quick to point out the success of the 4x400 team despite the obstacles they had to overcome.
"The four-by-four team ran really well, considering Zeke [Porter] had a back injury and Giles was stepped on by a spike," Norward said. "Despite all of that, they still broke their own school record."
Giles ran the third leg of the race. During the handoff, he was stepped on by a metal spike. Giles ignored it and ran with a purpose, knowing that the team had a strong chance to finish in first.
"Isaiah stepped on my ankle, but I just ignored the pain," Giles said. "Right before we got to the last leg, Kent got a jump on us. We feel we could have won, but it just was not our day to win first [place]."
Both teams were disappointed with their collective results. Even though numerous individuals came through and placed well in the finals, the men and women thought they could place higher.
"I am never satisfied when we come in last place," said men's head coach Perry Jenkins. "We should have done a little better, but what happened happened. Now we have to get ready for outdoors."
Norward felt the same way, but pointed out that the team was not at 100 percent. He believed the results would have been different had the teams been at full strength.
"We had determination, but a few people were injured and we just weren't at full strength," Norward said.
Other female standouts included senior distance runner Mary Veith, who finished in fourth in the mile after running a season best 4:55.87. Senior thrower Tina Villa finished fourth in the shot put with a throw of 50-0.5. The throw qualified her for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The MAC Tournament didn't end the season for either team. With outdoors starting in two weeks, all the teams can do now is focus on preparing for the new season.
"It is very hard indoors, because we do not have an indoor track," Jenkins said. "Now we have to get ready to run on the outside. We have to get into our speed work. I think outdoors will be a different team."
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
