Jenny Koeppel

BOSTON, MA - The University at Buffalo men's and women's track and field teams competed in their regional championships in Boston on Saturday. UB's women are currently tied for fourth place with 12 points in the ECAC Championships at Northeastern University's Reggie Lewis Center. The UB men, participating at the IC4A meet at the Boston University Track and Field Center, failed to score in the first day of action, but did post a school-record relay time.

Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst) improved her school record with a third-place finish in the women's 5,000-meter run. Koeppel turned in a time of 16:34.04, lowering her school record and NCAA provisional qualifying time by more than 20 seconds.

UB shot putters also had strong marks at the women's meet. Sarah Vance (Lockport, NY/Lockport) posted a fifth-place finish with a toss of 46-3.25 (14.10m). Faith Thompson (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls), the UB recordholder in the event, finished seventh overall with a throw of 45-5.25 (13.85m).

The women's 4x400-meter relay team advanced to Sunday's semifinals in school-record time. The foursome of Stacy Downer (Philadelphia, PA/Dobbins Tech), Patrice Coney (Lyons, NY/Lyons), Vashone Wallace (Lackawanna, NY/Lackawanna) and Celestine Coney (Lyons, NY/Lyons) finished the race in 3:47.25, cutting the school record set in 2003 by 1.15 seconds and placing fifth in the qualifying heats. Patrice Coney finished 20th in the 60-meter hurdles preliminaries in 8.96 and did not advance to the next round.

UB's men turned in a record-setting performance in the Distance Medley Relay. The foursome of Paul Riley (Buffalo, NY/Canisius), Brian Heim (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East), Chris McClure (Trumansburg, NY/Trumansburg) and Steve Strelick (Rochester, NY/Greece-Athena) crossed the finish line in 10:04.13, two-tenths of a second better than the 2003 record. The team finished 11th overall among 26 entries.

Todd Joki (Schuylerville, NY/Saratoga Springs) finished 11th in the long jump at 22-1.50 (6.74m) and 23rd in the 55-meter hurdles in 7.83. Dan McKenna (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) finished 13th in the mile run in 4:13.93. Onile White (Bronx, NY/DeWitt Clinton) took 18th in the 1,000-meters in 2:30.00.

Competition concludes on Sunday.