Roy Richards Wins IC4A Long Jump Title

Indoor track and field teams complete first day of regional championships

Roy Richards

BOSTON, MA – The University at Buffalo's Roy Richards (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) won his second long jump title in as many weeks as he took first place at the IC4A Championships at Boston University on Saturday afternoon. With four events scored in the men's meet, UB has 10 points, tied for fifth with MIT, Liberty and Cornell. Manhattan (28.5) leads the team scoring.

Richards led the event from start to finish, posting a winning mark of 24-5.50 (7.45m) on his sixth and final jump on the day. His opening jump of 24-5 (7.43m) led throughout the competition until he surpassed the distance in his final leap. Richards won the event by a full foot over second-place finisher Marquis Allen of Rutgers (23-5.50, 7.15m) and earned All-East honors in the process. Richards won the Mid-American Conference title in the event last weekend with a school-record mark of 24-9.75 (7.56m) to earn a provisional slot at next week's NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, AR.

In other action from the men's meet, Dan McKenna (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) placed 10th in the mile in 4:11.81 and qualified for Sunday's finals. Paul Riley (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) posted a personal-best mark in the 800-meters in 1:53.50. He finished 12th in Saturday's preliminaries with the top nine finishers advancing to Sunday's finals.

Meanwhile in the women's ECAC Championships, held at the Reggie Lewis Center on the campus of Northeastern University, the Bulls posted three points after the first six events to tie for 26th place out of 34 scoring teams.

Jessica Lister

UB was buoyed by a sixth-place finish by Jessica Lister (Rodman, NY/South Jefferson) in the pole vault. Lister cleared 12-3.50 (3.75m), four inches shy of her career-best vault.

The women's 1,600-meter relay team posted a season-best time in its race to finish 16th in a field of 27 on Saturday. The foursome of Stacy Downer (Philadelphia, PA/Dobbins/Randolph Tech), Desiree Rudloff (West Falls, NY/East Aurora), Jen Jezorski (Elmira, NY/Elmira Southside) and Kate Kohout (Clarence, NY/Clarence) turned in a clocking of 3:52.79, cutting a full second off their previous best.

UB athletes will be competing in four events on Sunday. The women's team will race in the distance medley relay at 1:00 pm at Northeastern. For the men, George Fetchko (Warren, OH/Howland) competes in the shot put at 11:00 am, Rayshon Higgins (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon-St. Jude) hits the runway in the triple jump at 11:30 am and McKenna competes in the finals of the mile at 12:05 pm.

03/04/2006