Men's Track & Field | 3/6/2010 6:31:53 PM

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NORTHAMPTON, MA - The RIT men's track and field team had several outstanding performances at the ECAC Championship meet on Friday and Saturday, finishing 13th out of 49 teams. Sophomore Michael Dempsey dominated the pole vault, easily winning the event, and soaring to a new school record height of 5.02 meters or 16 feet 5 inches. Dempsey was only eight centimeters away from automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championship Meet.

Freshman Marquis Moore (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili) again had strong performances in both the long and triple jumps, with distances of 6.75 meters and 13.35 meters respectively. Moore's effort in the long jump was good enough for fifth place. Moore capped a fantastic freshman campaign having scored at every championship meet, and setting new personal bests in both events.

On the track, a majority of the runners placed within the top ten of their respective events. The 4x200-meter relay team of Brecht Moulin (Scarborough, ME/Scarborough), Chris Webb (Sicklerville, NJ/Winslow Township), Anthony Schiavone (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro), and Cameron Lee (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford-Sutherland) placed eighth. The team joined forces to run a time of 1:32.02. The distance medley team also showed RIT's strength in the relay events with a 10th overall. The team consisting of John Holleran (West Warwick, RI/Bishop Hendricken), Adam Irr (Newfane, NY/Newfane), Nick Cox (Norfolk, VA/Norfolk), and Mike Kurvach (Victor, NY/Victor) ran a combined time of 10:20.86.

Junior Brecht Moulin (Scarborough, ME/Scarborough) placed fourth overall in the 400-meter dash. Moulin sprinted through the line in a time of 50.10 seconds.

In the longer events, distance runners finished their seasons strong. There were five tigers representing RIT in the 1,000 meter run.  Irr led the charge placing seventh with a time of 2:34.10. Seniors Nick Meeker (Hamburg, NJ/Wallkill Valley) and Nick Cox crossed the line with near identical times of 2:35.51 and 2:35.58, respectively. Their times were good enough for 14th and 16th. Kurvach placed eighth in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 8:49.12.

Dempsey, while not automatically qualifying for the NCAA championship, would appear to be a lock for the meet, as his current NCAA ranking is fourth (as of Friday evening). The only other male tiger currently provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships is Moulin in the 400 meter dash. Dempsey and Moulin's fate will be decided on Monday at 8 a.m., as the official NCAA Championship field will be announced at that time. The meet will be held at DePauw University in Indiana.