KENT, OH – The University at Buffalo’s men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams completed the 2003 Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday. The UB men took eighth place overall among ten teams while UB’s women took ninth in a 12-team field.

Eastern Michigan won the men’s meet with a total of 153.5 points to outdistance second-place Central Michigan (125.5). Western Michigan took third with 97 points, followed by Kent State (67.5), Akron (58.5), Toledo (45), Ball State (42), UB (37), Marshall (20) and Ohio (16). Host Kent State (88) won the women’s meet by a slim margin over Ball State (84.33). Central Michigan (75.6), Eastern Michigan (72.5), Western Michigan (72), Toledo (62), Akron (53), Miami (47.5), UB (47), Bowling Green (34), Ohio (23) and Marshall (4) completed the scoring.

Steve Esler

UB’s Steve Esler (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) became a MAC champion in the heptathlon, scoring a school-record 5,251 points in the two-day competition. Esler, who finished the first day 15 points behind defending champion Dana Thomas of Central Michigan, moved ahead of Thomas in Saturday’s first event, the 60-meter hurdles and went on to win the day’s final event, the 1000-meter run in 2:47.04, just 65-hundreths of a second ahead of Thomas and enough to give him the championship. Thomas finished with 5,229 overall points. UB’s Carlos Williams (Jamestown, NY/Westfield Academy) took fifth in the heptathlon with 4,837 points. Away from the heptathlon, Esler place fifth in the high jump at 6-7 (2.01m). Esler won the heptathlon high jump at 6-6.25 (1.99m) on Friday.

Byron McKinney

Other men’s highlights included Byron McKinney (Amherst, NY/Sweet Home) finishing fourth in the shot put at 55-9 (16.99m). Joe Clark (Amherst, NY/Sweet Home) scored a third-place finish in the 400-meter final in 47.47 and followed with a seventh-place finish in the 200-meters (21.88).

The Bulls also set two additional men’s records. Distance runner Rick Stewart (West Seneca, NY/West Seneca West) finished 10^th in the 3,000-meters in a school-record mark of 8:35.44.  The 4x400 relay team of Peter Zaccariello (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville), Tim Giagios (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili), Tom Abbey (Arcade, NY/Pioneer) and Clark earned a sixth-place finish in a school-record 3:16.51, cutting a full second off the previous best.

Christina Keck

In the women’s meet, the Bulls scored three school records on Saturday, with the 4x400 relay team of Jenelle Callender (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn Tech), Christina Keck (Erie, PA/McDowell), Mindy Gorniak (Erie, PA/McDowell) and Biaunca McFarland (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton) taking fourth in 3:49.43, breaking the old mark by more than a second.

Individually, Keck also scored a school-record with her third place finish in the mile. Keck shattered Judith Novak’s 10-year old mark more than five seconds with her 4:55.03 clocking. Allison Laske (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) placed fourth in the 800-meters in 2:11.93 while Callender took eighth in the 200-meters in 25.12. McFarland finished second in the triple jump at 41-9.25 (12.73m).

The Bulls travel to Boston for the ECAC/IC4A Championships next weekend.