CLINTON, NY - The Utica College track and field teams delivered strong performances by the bucketload at Friday's Hamilton College Invitational. Helmed by a dominant outing in the field events, the Pioneers posted a combined total of seventeen event wins in the meet held at Hamilton's Scott Field House. No team scores were kept.
The Pioneers swept all four throwing events, with Jane Fahy once again raising the program's bar in the indoor shot put. Her performance of 13.08 meters on her opening throw improved the school record by over half a meter from last week's record-setting performance. The UC men dominated the men's shot put, led by Hunter Logan's (Fort Plain, NY/Herkimer College) crisp 15.54 meter effort. Utica took eight of the top nine places. Arthur Bittel (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) was second, Billie Mays was fourth, and Michael McNeil (Yarmouth, ME/Yarmouth) was fifth. Dominance of the throws continued into the weight throw, where Antwan Kelly (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) (15.67 meters) and Gabrielle DeSanctis (13.96 meters) were victorious.
The Pioneers also swept the jumping events. Laura Meade was a dual winner in the horizontal jumps as she topped the table in the women's long jump(4.90 meters), and triple jump (10.18 meters). Makiya Donnelly and Amina Sinclair shared the top mark in the women's high jump of 1.50 meters, with Donnelly taking top honors on a tiebreaker. Maya Leonard was third. In the men's long jump, Josh Washington (6.30 meters) and Sei Sei (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) (6.20 meters) finished first and second. Zuriel Wright (Parlin, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial) was a dual-winner in the triple jump (12.57 meters) and high jump (1.88 meters)
On the track, the performances were equally as astonishing.
In the 60 meters, Mackenzie Mix won her college debut in that event in 8.10 seconds. She took the win in the final by a hundredth of a second, with Ayjah Clarke and Maya Leonard coming in fourth and fifth. Josh Washington won the men's event in 7.11 seconds, with Michael Campbell placing fifth.
The good times continued for Mix at 200 meters, where she was the winner in 26.67 seconds. Meade was fifth at a time of 28.14. Daijon Richards (Mount Vernon, NY/Mount Vernon) was third in the men's 200 with a 23.85 second effort.
UC swept the 400 meter wins, with Janaiya Cruz-Bermudez carrying the banner for UC with a winning time of 1:04.20 as the team's only entry in the women's event. Multi-eventer Andrew Wieder (Clinton, NY/Clinton) won the men's event in 54.35.
In the women's 800, the Pioneers recorded a 1-2-3 finish with Jade Dening cruising to the win in 2:32. Alexis Cole and Noella Burlette were second and third.
The women's 4x400 relay team of Mix, Dening, Meade, and Cruz-Bermudez won by a margin of eleven seconds at 4:22.41, while the men's squad was the runner-up in 3:37.01.
The Pioneers will host the Blue and Orange Invitational on January 29th.
