Men's Track & Field | 2/11/2017 5:34:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY -- The RIT men's indoor track and field team placed second at the 2017 Liberty League Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted by RIT at Gordon Field House Saturday. The Tigers finished second out of four teams with a team score of 192 points. Rensselaer won the title with a team score of 223 points.
"The men had a strong meet, particularly the jumpers and throwers," said RIT head coach
David Warth. "RPI is tough and they did a great job to win because we had a fine meet."
Matthew Lienhard (Allentown, PA/Allentown Catholic) won the 60-meter dash in a Liberty League-record time of 7.00 seconds. He breaks his old school record time by five one-hundredths of a second as well.
Kyle Kaniecki (Burton, OH/West Geauga) was fifth in the 60-meter dash (7.20), while
Jon Ennin (Sunnyvale, TX/Sunnyvale) was sixth in a time of 7.22.
RIT excelled in the opening race of the day, the 5,000-meter run. The duo of
James Bailey (Danvers, MA/Danvers) and
Otto Kingstedt () broke away with Rensselaer's Sean O'Connor. Around the final turn, all three were vying for the title before O'Connor grabbed the lead in the final 50 meters, winning by just 56 one-hundredths of a second in 15:05.44. Bailey was right behind in 15:06, while Kingstedt settled for third in 15:07.50.
Tommy Papish (Strongsville, OH/Strongsville) placed fourth overall in 15:24.50. Both Bailey and Kingstedt recorded top-40 national times in the 5,000-meters today. Kingstedt (8:53.26) and Bailey (8:53.63) placed third and fourth, respectively in the 3,000-meters
Curtis Geiger (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) and
Christopher Callejo (West Babylon, NY/Patchouge-Medford) were third and fourth in the 400-meter dash. Geiger came home third in a time of 51.07, while Callejo was fourth in a time of 51.41.
Myles Garner (Gurnee, IL/Warren Township) and
Daniel Giuliano (Ledgewood, NJ/Roxbury) were second and third in the 60-meter hurdles. Garner came home second in a time of 8.50, while Giuliano was third in a time of 8.59.
Giuliano also won the long jump with a leap of 6.93 meters.
Nick Ng (Wayland, MA/Wayland) won the triple jump with a leap of 13.56 meters, and was third in the long jump (6.72 meters).
RIT dominated in the pole vault, sweeping the top five places.
Austin White (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) won the event with a jump of 4.40 meters.
Michael Whelton (Boston, MA/Londonderry) and
Michael Kist (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) tied for second with identical 4.25 meter jumps, and
Jack Smith (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) was fourth, also at 4.25 meters.
Chris Beckley (Derby, NY/Lake Shore) was fifth with a vault of 4.10 meters.
In relay action, the Tigers won the 4x200-meter relay, while placing second in the 4x400-meter and Distance medley relays. In th 4x200-meter relay, the team of Giuliano, Kaniecki, Ennin, and Geiger came home first in a time of 1:31.38. In the 4x400-meter relay, the team of
Rob Dalheim (Rochester, NY/Brockport),
Eric Hambleton (Weare, NH/Bishop Brady), Callejo and Geiger were second in a time of 3:27.20. The team of
Brian Cusack (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional), Lucas Hallick,
Matthew Meehan (West Caldwell, NJ/Caldwell) and
Grant Salk (Livermore, CA/Granada) came home second in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:42.53.
Jake Saxton (Merrimack, NH/Bishop Brady) was second in the weight throw (14.72 meters), while
Zach Darling (Rome, PA/Northeast Bradford) was third (14.31 meters). Saxton and Darling were second and fourth in the shot put. Saxton recorded a throw of 14.73 meters, while Darling was fourth with a toss of 13.50 meters.
RIT is back in action next Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Utica Invitational, which gets underway at 10 a.m.
