TRACK & FIELD

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KENT, OH - The University at Buffalo men's and women's track and field teams had a strong first day of competition at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships at Kent State University on Friday. After the first day, the UB women stand in sixth-place in the 12-team competition with 16 points while UB's men are eighth among 10 teams with three points.

Laura Olson

Central Michigan leads the women's meet with 38.66 points, with host Kent State second at 35. Toledo (27), Eastern Michigan (26.50), Ball State (22.33), UB (16), Akron (15), Miami (OH) (14.50), Ohio (13), Western Michigan (12), Bowling Green (10) and Marshall (4) complete the scoring.

In the men's meet, Eastern Michigan holds first place with 34 points with Central Michigan second at 22. Akron (18), Western Michigan (16), Ball State (8), Kent State (7), Marshall (6), UB (3), Ohio (2) and Toledo (1) follow.

Joe Clark

The Bulls set six new school records on Friday. In the women's meet, Laura Olson (Lyons, NY/Lyons) bettered her own pole vault mark with her second-place finish at 12-9.50 (3.90m). Faith Thompson (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) increased her 20-pound weight throw record by almost a foot and a half with a toss of 60-4.50 (18.40m) to finish fourth overall. Jenelle Callender (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn Tech) clocked 25.00 seconds to qualify for Saturday's 200-meter dash finals.

In the men's competition, Joe Clark (Amherst, NY/Amherst) broke his own mark in the 200-meter dash qualifying. Clark crossed the finish line in 21.76, cutting 13-hundreths off his old mark. Clark also qualified for the 400-meter finals in 47.68, second only to Ball State's Scott Allen (47.58).

Steve Esler

Both of UB's distance medley teams set new records to finish in sixth place in their respective races. The men clocked a 10:04.74 time to shave nearly three seconds off the old mark set in 2002 scoring UB's only points of the meet thus far. Meanwhile, UB's women cut more than three seconds off of the 2000 record to finish in 11:59.40.

Men's multi-athlete Steve Esler (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) has himself poised in striking distance of capturing the two-day heptathlon competition. Esler stands in second place at 2,982 points, just 15 points behind leader and 2002 defending champion Dana Thomas of Central Michigan heading into Saturday's final three events. Esler and Thomas split the four events contested on Friday. Esler finished first in the shot put at 45-3.50 (13.80m) and high jump at 6-6.25 (1.99m). Thomas won the 60-meter dash in 7.13 and long jump at 23-4.50 (7.12m). UB's Carlos Williams (Jamestown, NY/Westfield Academy) is in third place in the competition with 2,808 points. Williams finished second to Esler in the shot put at 41-10.50 (12.76m).

Competition concludes on Saturday.