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Patrice Coney Wins MAC Pentathlon Title

Patrice Coney

AKRON, OH – The University at Buffalo's Patrice Coney (Lyons, NY/Lyons) became a Mid-American Conference champion with her victory in the women's pentathlon to break her own school record and lead UB's track and field athletes at the MAC Championships at the University of Akron Fieldhouse as Friday's competition came to a close.

The UB women currently stand in third place among 11 scoring teams with 24 points, trailing Western Michigan (36.50) and host Akron (27). The UB men are sixth in the six-team field with 11 points as Kent State heads the pack with 59 points.

Coney, a senior, scored 3,677 points to win the title by 106 points over Kent State's Brooke Sposito. Although Coney did not win any of the individual events, her point total in her overall finishes was good enough to give her the title. Coney turned in a second-place finish in the competition's final event, the 800-meter run in 2:20.02 to garner enough points to win the title. She also had a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles portion of the event in 8.99 seconds. Coney also broke her record of 3,585 points in the competition which she set at the 2005 MAC Championships where she finished third.

Sarah Vance (Lockport, NY/Lockport) scored a second-place finish in the women's weight throw on Friday. Vance had a season-best toss of 58-8.75 (17.90m) to finish behind Akron's Stevi Large. Large won the MAC title by bettering former UB star Faith Thompson's MAC record by nearly a foot with a throw of 65-7 (19.99m).

Fatimah Hill (Waterport, NY/Lyndonville) finished third in the women's long jump with a leap of 18-9.75 (5.73m).

On the men's side, two Bulls scored points in the long jump as Todd Joki (Saratoga Springs, NY/Schuylerville) placed sixth at 23-0 (7.01m) and Rayshon Higgins (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon-St. Jude) took eighth at 22-5 (6.83m). Joki also stands second in the men's heptathlon with 2,917 points through four of the seven events. He had second-place finishes in the 60-meters (7.15) and long jump (22-8.50, 6.92m) portions of the heptathlon.

UB's men's distance medley relay team finished third in 10:14.13. The foursome consisted of freshmen John Bauman (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville North), John Connors (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island), Ryan Zillmann (Deer Park, NY/Half Hollow Hills West) and senior Dan McKenna (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool).

Several UB athletes advanced in to the finals of their events for Saturday. Freshman Ezekiel Porter (Rochester, NY/East) delivered the second-best time in the 200-meters (21.49) and third-fastest in the 60-meters (6.79). Reggie Rucker (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) has the second-fastest time in the 60-meter hurdles (7.95) with Joki seventh in 8.24. Paul Riley (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) turned in the third-best time in the 800-meters in 1:53.68. Brian Heim (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) is fifth in the 400-meters (49.05). For the women, freshman Octavia Johnston (Syracuse, NY/Fowler) qualified sixth in the 60-meters in 7.76.

Competition concludes Saturday.