Men's Throwers Break Records at Akron Invitational

Alex Stamatakis

AKRON, OH – The University at Buffalo men’s and women's track and field teams completed the Akron Invitational meet on Saturday with a pair of men's records improved upon and several top finishes by both squads. There was no team scoring at the meet that also included Division I programs from Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The meet was divided into two sections. The gold division for the top athletes in each event and the blue division for the remainder of the entrants.

UB's men's throwers improved on a pair of their own records as both Alex Stamatakis and Matt Gac placed third in their individual gold division events. Stamatakis improved his shot put record with a throw of 58-3.75 (17.77m), bettering his old mark by four and a half inches and earning the senior a provisional NCAA qualification. Gac added more than seven inches to his existing record in the the weight throw, finishing at 62-11.25 (19.18m). It was the third time this season that Gac has broken the weight throw record. Stamatakis finished third in blue division of the event at 56-10.75 (17.34m).

Chris Davis

The UB men also had some top finishes in other gold division events. Chris Davis finished fourth in the long jump at 22-9.75 (6.95m), tying his season-best mark in the event. Ryan Bloom also produced a season-best time with his fifth-place finish in the 3,000-meters in 8:57.28. In the 60-meter hurdles, Austin Archibald reached the gold finals, placing seventh, in 8.28 seconds. He posted a season-best mark of 8.27 seconds in the preliminaries. The men's 4x400-meter relay team of Brian Smith, Sean Brummert, Justin Craddock and Isaiah Mask took fifth in 3:17.80. Ryan Zillmann scored a third-place finish in the blue division of the 800-meters in 1:54.38, posting an IC4A qualifying time.

Ajla Glavasevic

The UB women posted three first-place finishes in blue division events. Ajla Glavasevic took the triple jump with a leap of 38-7.50 (11.77m). Appearing in her first competition of the season, Glavasevic won the event by just a quarter-inch. Jackie Cavalluzzo won the women's blue division mile in 5:19.77 and Shante' White won the blue division of the shot put with a season-best heave of 45-1.50 (13.75m).

In the gold division, Kristy Woods took second in the shot put at 48-11 (14.91m) with Tina Villa third at 48-6 (14.78m). Woods also placed seventh in the weight throw at 52-7.50 (16.04m). Tiffany Maskulinski was third in the pole vault at 12-4.50 (3.77m).

Anna Holmes

On the track, UB's 4x400-meter relay team was edged out by Duquesne by four-thousandths of a second. The UB foursome which included Anna Holmes, Allison Grimes, Leah Grasmeyer and Katelyn Laurey, finished in 3:53.159 with Duquesne finishing in 3:53.155. Holmes also earned a second-place finish in the 400-meter's gold division with a season-best and ECAC qualifying time of 56.87.

Both teams also produced quality results in the discus, an event rarely held indoors due to the size of most venues. Villa won the women's event at 150-11 (46.00m) with Woods second (143-2, 43.65m) and White fourth (126-11, 38.69m) among five entrants. Gac took second in the men's competition at 167-10 (51.17m) with Jake Madonia fourth at 157-6 (48.01m).

The Bulls return to Akron on Friday for the Akron Open at 7:00 pm.