Laura Olson

BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo claimed the men's and women's titles Saturday at the UB Open track and field meet at UB Stadium. The UB men won 11 events and tied for first in another to finish with 167.5 points with Syracuse second at 128 and Binghamton third with 88.5. The UB women scored 162 points behind nine event winners to outdistance Syracuse (139.5) and Binghamton (60.5).

UB's Laura Olson (Lyons, NY/Lyons) broke her own pole vault record and established a new UB Stadium mark with her victory on Saturday. Olson vaulted 13-5.50 (4.10m), nearly four inches better than her previous school record. The vault also surpassed the UB Stadium mark of 12-5.50 (3.80m) set by Bianca Maran of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in the 1998 NCAA Championships.

Freshman Stacy Downer (Philadelphia, PA/Dobbins Tech) won two sprint events for the Bulls. Downer took the 200-meter dash in 25.01 and the 400-meter dash in 56.95.

Patrice Coney

Other women's individual winners included Jennifer Jezorski (Elmira, NY/Elmira Southside) in the 800-meters (2:15.88), Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst) in the 5,000-meters (17:40.95), Celestine Coney (Lyons, NY/Lyons) in the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.73) and Patrice Coney (Lyons, NY/Lyons) in the heptathlon (4,661 points). UB also swept the relays with the 4x100 foursome winning in 47.67 and the 4x400 quartet finishing in 3:53.54.

Steve Esler

In the men's meet, Steve Esler (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) became a double-winner by virtue of his first-place tie in the high jump. Esler, who won the javelin on Friday, cleared 6-3.50 (1.92m) on the high jump to tie with Binghamton's Nick Tillman. Other field event winners for the Bulls included Reggie Rucker (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) in the long jump (24-0.50, 7.33m) and Rayshon Higgins (Buffalo, NY/Timon/St. Jude) in the triple jump (47-5.25, 14.46m).

Sprinter Bryan Weinstein (Getzville, NY/Williamsville North) took first place in the 400-meters in 49.44. UB also got distance victories from Andy Wigton (Rochester, NY/Greece-Athena) in the 1,500-meters (4:00.59) and Dan McKenna (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:37.36).

Todd Joki

UB also swept the men's hurdle competitions as Erich Smithson (East Aurora, NY/Iroquois) took the 110-meter distance in 15.06 and Brian Heim (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) won the 400-meter event in 53.23.

Multi-event specialist Todd Joki (Saratoga Springs, NY/Schuylerville) completed the decathlon with a victory, scoring 6,538 points, more than a thousand ahead of second-place Johnson Palas of Syracuse.

The Bulls also swept the relay races. UB took the 4x100 relay in 41.77 while the 4x400 foursome was victorious in 3:21.87.