ROCHESTER, NY - Championship season has arrived in New York. The Utica University track and field team will head over to the Golisano Training Center on the campus of Nazareth University this Friday and Saturday at 2:00 PM and 11:00 AM respectively, to compete in the Empire 8 Indoor Championships. The Pioneers were able to gear up for this weekend's championships with last Friday's outing, the St. Lawrence Open, hosted by St. Lawrence University, where the men took home first place out of six teams in team scoring with a total of 152 points, while the women took second of six teams with a total of 143 points. Both men's and women's teams will be in hopes of gathering a good amount of gold at the Empire 8 Indoor Championships.
 
This Weekend's Event: The Empire 8 Indoor Championships will take place on Friday, February 27th, at 2:00 PM and Saturday, February 28th, at 11:00 AM at the Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York.
 
Participating athletes will have qualified during the season, and will compete amongst the conference's top talent. There will also be team scoring tallied at the event, with the top team becoming the Indoor Empire 8 Champion.
 
Interested spectators can follow along with the results by heading to https://www.leonetiming.com/results/
 
The official schedule and results page will open on the morning of the event.
 
Stream the Championships: There will be a live stream available for both days of the meet, which can be found at the following link: https://www.empire8network.com/nazareth/
 
Spectators who are interested in attending the meet will have to purchase a ticket at the door. Tickets are $7 for a one day pass and $10 for a two day pass. Children ages 12 and under or college students with an ID will receive free entry.
 
Record Reachers: The Pioneers had a pair of school records broken last week at the SLU Open. First, Laura Suppa (Canastota, NY/Canastota) broke the school record for the 60m dash with a time of 7.69 seconds. Suppa doubled back in the 60m dash and delivered another dominant performance. After leading prelims in 7.81, she exploded to a 7.69 in the final to win the event outright and set a new school record in the process. Freshman Kayla Cavalieri reached the final as well, finishing seventh overall with an 8.44 after running 8.49 in prelims.
 
On the men's side, Spencer Borghardt (Smithtown, NY/St.Anthony's) claimed first in the weight throw with a new school record mark of 18.34m, while Joshua Talbot (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) followed in second with a toss of 17.51m. Michael Christensen (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island), Michael Blenis (Norwich, NY/Norwich), and Edward Haeffer all added scoring marks as Utica piled up points in the event.
 
Program Top-10's: Utica had five top-ten finishes in last week's SLU Open in addition to their school records:
#5 Cade Tavares (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) - 60mH 8.49
#6 Marlo Townsend (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) - Mile 5:26.70
#7 Allie Cary (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) - Weight Throw 14.98m
#8 Anthony Leotta (Dix Hills, NY/Half Hollow Hills West) - 800m 1:59.31
#9 Logan Hewitt (Mohawk, NY/Central Valley Academy) - Shot Put 14.58m
 
First Place Finishes: The Pioneers also had eight different first-place finishes in the SLU Open:
Killian Bauer (Verona, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherill) - Mile 4:35.50
Catherine Manna (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) - 400m 1:03.40
Laura Suppa (Canastota, NY/Canastota) - 60m 7.69
Arianna McClendon (Rome, NY/New York Mills) - 200m 26.51
Men's 4x400m - Zechariah Bolos (Clinton, NY/Clinton), Frank D'Angelo (), Anthony Leotta (Dix Hills, NY/Half Hollow Hills West), Riley Smith (Westmoreland, NY/Westmoreland Central) 3:35.95
Allie Cary (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) - Shot Put 12.43m
Hailey Hrouda (Wappingers Falls, NY/Roy C. Ketcham) - Weight Throw 14.99m
Spencer Borghardt (Smithtown, NY/St.Anthony's) - Weight Throw 18.34m
 
Tune in this weekend to see if the team secures any more first-place finishes and school records!
 
Following This Weekend's Empire 8 Indoor Championships: Following the Empire 8 Indoor Championships, the Pioneers who qualified will compete in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Indoor Championships (aka AARTFC). The AARTFC will take place at the Armory Track in New York, NY, on Friday, March 6th, at 11:00 AM and Saturday, March 7th, at 10:00 AM.