TRACK & FIELD

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BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo men's and women's track and field teams had several outstanding performances on the final day of the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at UB Stadium on Saturday.

The highlight of the day was junior Kamau Halim (Medina, NY/Medina) becoming UB's first MAC men's track and field champion by claiming the triple jump with a school-record leap of 50-9¹/₂". Halim's performance helped the Bulls' men to a ninth place finish with 45 points.

On the women's side, UB got several strong performances -including a second place finish by Udo Okeke (Seattle, WA/Lagos) in the 800 meters (2:10.01) -to move from the bottom of the pack all the way to seventh place with 41¹/₂ points out of 11 teams.

All told, UB had 11 athletes score points, finishing in the top eight, on the final day of competition, led by a strong finish in the women's 800 meters. Besides Okeke's second-place finish, freshman Christina Keck (Erie, PA/McDowell) who earned five team points with a fourth place finish in a time of 2:12.77. Other excellent performances on the women's side were turned in by Melissa Ryan (Oswego, NY/Oswego), Sarah Fletcher (Crystal Beach, Ontario/Crystal Beach-Ridgeway), Biaunca McFarland (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton), Katie Scott (Salamanca, NY/Salamanca) and Deven Fister (Poughkeepsie, NY/Arlington).

Ryan finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles (14:14), Fletcher was sixth in the discus (142-11), McFarland, a freshman, was sixth in the triple jump (11.89 meters), Scott was seventh in the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.61) while Fister broke her own school record in the pole vault (10-10") and finished ninth. In addition, the 4x400-meter relay team of Okeke, Keck, Scott and Jennelle Callender (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn Tech) was sixth in a time of 3:48.45.

On the men's side, Halim picked up 10 points with his victory while three other individuals and the 4x400-meter relay team also scored. The 4x400 team of David Monk (Norwich, NY/Norwich), Mike Commisso (Fulton, NY/G. Ray Bodley), Steve Hoskins and Peter Otovic (Dewitt, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) broke the school record with a time of 3:15.53.

Commisso also finished fifth in the 800 meters (1:52.93) while sophomore Brian Williams (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) was eighth in the 400 hurdles (:54.01) and Eric Czubaj (Buffalo, NY/JFK) was eighth in the 1,500 meters (3:59.47).

Other highlights of the event for UB were Sarah Fletcher winning the hammer throw on Thursday to become UB's first female outdoor MAC champion and freshman Steve Esler (Rochester, NY/Aquinas) finishing third in the decathlon.