Roy Richards, Sarah Vance Win Regional Titles

Roy Richards

BOSTON, MA – Two University at Buffalo indoor track and field athletes captured regional titles and a total of six individuals gained All-East recognitions as the men's IC4A and women's ECAC Championships concluded in Boston. The men's IC4A meet was held at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center while the women's ECAC meet was a short distance away at Northeastern University's Reggie Lewis Center.

Roy Richards (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) won his second consecutive IC4A long jump title with a winning leap of 24-9.25 (7.55m) at the competition. Richards set the winning jump on his third of six attempts and was able to hold on after fouling in his final three tries. He won the event by 13.25 inches over Rider's Desmond Hamilton. UB's Todd Joki (Saratoga Springs, NY/Schuylerville) placed 11th in the event at 22-3.75 (6.80m).

Sarah Vance (Lockport, NY/Lockport) claimed her first ECAC title with a win in the women's shot put. Vance took the competition by six inches over St. Francis (PA) senior Diane Gmiter with a throw of 50-9.50 (15.48m). UB teammate Tina Villa (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Springs) also scored points for the Bulls in the event with a toss of 48-2.50 (14.69m).

Sarah Vance

Men's sprinter Reggie Rucker (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) reached the finals of the 55-meter hurdles and just missed his school record in the final race. Rucker clocked a 7.36 showing in the finals of the event, just three-hundredths off the record he set earlier this season. He also finished third in the semifinal heat in 7.38 and was fifth in the opening heats in 7.41. Pittsburgh's Mike Wray set a BU facility record with his winning time of 7.18 in the championship race.

UB's women's pole vaulters scored points as Jessica Lister (Rodman, NY/South Jefferson) finished third and Carrie Hinners (Maple Grove, MN/Maple Grove) tied for sixth. Lister, an All-East performer at last year's meet, set a season-best mark of 12-7.50 (3.85m) as the top four vaulters each cleared the same height with Duke's Lara Jones earning first place. Hinners tied with Bucknell's Angie Hall at 11-11.75 (3.65m) splitting the available five points for sixth and seventh places.

The men's 4x800-meter relay squad shattered the school record in their event. The foursome of John Bauman (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville North), Dan McKenna (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), Ryan Zillmann (Deer Park, NY/Half Hollow Hills West) and Josh Durkin (Depew, NY/Lancaster) turned in a time of 7:42.16, to finish 11th among 21 squads but unable to move out of the heats which took the top nine teams for the finals. The time broke the previous record, set at Penn State in January, by more than six seconds.

Freshman sprinter Ezekiel Porter (Rochester, NY/East) reached the semifinals of the men's 55-meter dash. Porter clocked the third-fastest time in the preliminaries in 6.39 seconds to make the cut to 16 semifinalists. In the semifinals, he turned in a 6.58 showing to finish 15th overall.

Rayshon Higgins (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon-St. Jude) placed ninth in the men's triple jump at 47-9.75 (14.57m). George Fetchko (Warren, OH/Howland) topped the three UB men's shot putters with a toss of 53-2.75 (16.22m) to place 11th among 31 throwers. Women's long jumper Fatimah Hill (Waterport, NY/Lyndonville) was ninth in her event at 18-2.50 (5.55m).

Richards, Vance, Villa, Rucker, Lister and Hinners earned All-East accolades at the meets. The top eight finishers in each event earn the distinction.

The UB women placed 12th among 51 teams with 23.50 points. The UB men scored 16 points to tie for 15th place with Yale and Fairleigh Dickinson. Connecticut won the women's title with 61 points. Cornell won the men's title with 50 points, five ahead of second-place Seton Hall (45). A total of 53 men's teams scored points.