UB Squads Roll To UB Open Titles

UB's men's and women's indoor track and field squads were victorious at the UB Open at Alumni Arena. The UB's women defeated Canisius 127-37 while the men downed the Griffs 86-61 in the Division I portions of the meet. Teams from Rochester Institute of Technology and Alfred State also competed but did not count in the scoring.

UB's women's squad set a pair of school records and tied another. Laura Olson (Lyons, NY/Lyons) won the pole vault with a mark of 10-6 (3.20m) breaking the old mark of 10-2 (3.10m) set by teammate Deven Fister (Poughkeepsie, NY/Arlington) last season. Sarah Fletcher (Ridgeway, Ontario/Ridgeway-Crystal Beach) was a double winner for the Bulls setting a new school standard in the shot put with a toss of 43-9.75 (13.35m), breaking her old mark of 40-2 (12.24m) from last season. The throw also qualified her for the ECAC Championships. She also won the 20-lb. weight throw with a toss of 57-11.25 (17.66m).

Other double winners for the UB women included Janelle Callender (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn Tech), who tied Tonya Reid's 1993 school record winning the 55-meters in 7.24 seconds while also taking the 200 meters in 26.34. Christina Matthews (Waterford, NJ/Edgewood) won the 55-meter hurdles (8.90) and high jump (5-3.75; 1.62m). The Bulls had winners in all 18 events on the evening.

In the men's meet Andre Forde (Penfield, NY/Penfield) was victorious in both the 55-meters (6.74) and 200-meters (23.74). Pete Otovic (DeWitt, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) won the 400-meters in 52.14 and was part of the victorious 4 x 400 relay squad in 3:32.20 with Rich Juskiewicz (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili), Tom Abbey (Arcade, NY/Pioneer) and Mike Commisso (Fulton, NY/G. Ray Bodley).

The men also picked up wins from Todd Ludden (Hornell, NY/Hornell) in the 5000 meters (15:48.60), Adam Smith (Varysburg, NY/Attica) in the 35-lb. weight throw with a personal best 58-10 (17.43m), qualifying him for the IC4A meet, and Tory Smith (Centereach, NY/Half Hollow Hills East) with a 21-7.25 (6.58m) leap in the long jump. Freshman Todd Skinner (Eden, NY/Eden) won the pentathlon with 2,574 points.

"I thought we performed reasonably well for the expectations we had," said head coach Dick Barry. "We're really peaking for our next two meets at Eastern Michigan and Penn State."

Up Next

The Bulls are at the Eastern Michigan Invitational Saturday and follow that with a visit to the Penn State Invitational on Feb. 9-10. The Bulls opted out of the upcoming Cannon IV Classic in Indianapolis in favor of the Penn State meet which will also attract top squads from throughout the country.

2000-01 Schedule

Dec. 2 at Colgate Invitational

Men: UB 144, Colgate 100.5, Canisius 68.5

Women: UB 163, Colgate 101, Cansius 61

Dec. 9 at Kent Open No team scoring

Jan. 20 at Cornell Invitational

Men: 2nd of 6 Women: 2nd of 6

Jan. 26 UB OPEN

Men: UB 86, Canisius 61

Women: UB 127, Canisius 37

Feb. 3 at E. Michigan Inv. Ypsilanti, MI

Feb. 9-10 at Penn State Inv. University Park, PA

Feb. 17 at Cornell Kane Inv. Ithaca, NY

Feb. 23-24 at MAC Championships Mt. Pleasant, MI

Mar. 3-4 at ECAC & IC4A Champs Boston, MA

Mar. 8-10 at NCAA Championships Fayetteville, AR