Men's Track & Field | 2/7/2019 8:29:00 PM
BROCKPORT, NY – The RIT men's track and field team finished second out of nine teams at the Golden Eagle Late Night Invitational on Thursday from The College at Brockport's Special Events Recreation Center.
RIT, who sent an abbreviated group of student-athletes, finished with a team score of 109 points. Host Brockport won the meet with 219 points.
Sodiq Alaraba (Lagos, Nigeria/DoEstdot International) was one of RIT's three winners on the night, taking the 200-meters by three tenths of a second in a time of 23.31 seconds.
RIT had three of the top four collegiate finishers in the pole vault.
Jack Smith (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder), the reigning RIT Male Athlete of the Week and Liberty League Field Performer of the Week, cleared 4.75 meters to win the event, which is a career-high. It is also tied for the 14th best performance in Division III this season. Alberto Lafuente Veron (4.55 meters) and
Thomas James (/) (4.40 meters) finished third and fourth, respectively.
The Tigers excelled in distance events.
Jason Ziskind (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) won the mile run by just over two seconds in a time of 4:35.33.
Jake Barker (Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa) also earned an eighth-place finish in the event.
RIT had four of the top six finishers in the 5,000-meters.
Noah Britton (Glens Falls, NY/Glens Falls) and race winner James O'Brien battled over the final 2,000-meters before O'Brien won on the last strides, nipping Britton by just seven one-hundredths of a second in a time of 16:06.25.
Owen Brewer (Montrose, PA/Montrose Area) (16:26.75) placed third,
Kyle Higby (Mexico, NY/Mexico) (16:37.07) was fourth and
Nate Butler (Warren, OH/Lakeview) finished sixth (16:44.69).
RIT had four of the top-six collegiate finishers in the 3,000-meters.
Neil Kolhatkar (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) (9:18.33) was second,
Jay Humphreys (Sherman, CT/New Milford) (9:34.69) placed third,
James Kane (New Milford, CT/New Milford) (9:36.87) finished fourth and
Sebastian Moreano (Medford, NY/Patchouge-Medford) (9:46.51) recorded an eighth-place finish.
Daniel Giuliano (Ledgewood, NJ/Roxbury) was runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.81 seconds.
Matthew Skakal (Lancaster, NY /Lancaster ) recorded a strong second place finish in the 400-meters, crossing the finish line in 52.67 seconds.
AJ Wells (Clay, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse ) was right behind in fourth, with a time of 53.00 seconds.
RIT has several student-athletes competing at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by Boston University on Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9. RIT hosts the RIT Last Chance Meet on Saturday, Feb. 16 from the Gordon Field House at 10 a.m.
