Bulls Finish Second at Seahawk Invitational

Tina Villa

WILMINGTON, NC – The University at Buffalo’s men’s and women’s track and field teams finished in second place behind host North Carolina-Wilmington to open the outdoor season at the UNCW Seahawk Invitational which concluded Saturday.

The Bulls won four men’s events and four women’s events. Women’s thrower Tina Villa won two events, the shot put and discus and earned an NCAA regional qualifying mark in the shot put.

Villa was part of a one-two-three finish for the Bulls in the shot put. Villa won the event with a throw of 14.57m. Freshmen Kristy Woods and Shante' White finished second and third, respectively, with tosses of 13.97m and 12.55m. Villa also won the discus throw with a distance of 44.34m, nearly three meters better than the second-place finisher from UNCW.

Winning on the track for the UB women were Kara Black (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) and Allison Grimes. Black took first in the 200-meters in 24.87 seconds. Grimes won the 400-meters in 57.54 seconds, just four-tenths of a second in front of Bryerica Barnes of UNCW.

Dan Harris

The UB men won three races on the track. Dan Harris won the 100-meters in 10.67 seconds while Brian Smith took the 200-meters in 21.47 seconds. Dan Schichtel finished second to Harris in the 100-meters in 10.84 seconds.

UB’s 4x100-meter relay team was also victorious taking the race in 41.38 seconds, less than two-tenths ahead of UNCW.

In the field events, Matt Gac won the men’s discus with a throw of 46.00m. Corey Knox and Jake Madonia took second and third with tosses of 45.21m and 45.03m. Madonia and Knox also finished second and third, respectively, in the shot put behind an unattached entrant.

UB’s men scored 177 points to finish behind the Seahawks with 246.50 in the five-team men’s meet. The UB women tallied 181 behind UNCW’s 224.50 in the seven-team women’s competition.

Both squads return to the Tar Heel State in two weeks to take part at the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State on March 27 and 28.