Men's Track & Field | 5/3/2019 8:15:00 PM
TROY, NY – The RIT men's track and field team is currently second out of eight teams after Friday's action at the 2019 Liberty League Outdoor Track & Field Championships, held at Harkness Field on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Action continues on Saturday at 10 a.m.
The Tigers currently have 62 points after six scored events. Host RPI holds the lead with 80 team points and University of Rochester is third with 54. A pair of Tigers won individual events Friday.
Senior
Evan Feigel (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) won the 10,000-meter run by a remarkable 38 seconds. He crossed the finish line in a personal best time of 31:06.46, which was also a Liberty League Championship record. He became the third consecutive Tiger to win the event, joining
James Bailey (Danvers, MA/Danvers) in 2017 and
Otto Kingstedt (Stockholm, Sweden/Cybergymnasiet) last year.
Sophomore
Jeff Walter (Buffalo, NY/St. Francis) won his first Liberty League title in the long jump, recording a leap of 7.09 meters.
Devante Marshall (Gloversville, NY/Mayfield) was right behind in fourth place with a top jump of 6.97 meters. Walter was third in the event last season.
RIT had three top-seven finishers in the hammer throw. Senior
Zach Darling (Rome, PA/Northeast Bradford) was the runner-up with a career-best throw of 50.50 meters. Senior
Mickey Evans (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville North) also recorded a career-best throw of 46.11 meters to place fourth overall, while freshman
Matthew Funicelli (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) was seventh, firing the hammer 45.71 meters.
The Tigers also had three of the top-six finishers in the pole vault.
Alberto Lafuente Veron () was third, clearing 4.55 meters, while
Thomas James (/) was right behind in fourth, surpassing 4.40 meters.
Nick Baxter (Windsor, NY/Windsor) placed sixth, clearing 4.25 meters, while
William Phifer (Pittsburgh, PA/Chartiers Valley) was ninth (4.10 meters).
Kyle Higby (Mexico, NY/Mexico) and
Jay Humphreys (Sherman, CT/New Milford) placed fifth and sixth overall, respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Higby recorded a time of 9:49.56 to place fifth, while Humphreys was four seconds behind in sixth.
RIT also had several student-athletes qualify for Saturday's championship events with strong preliminary efforts Friday.
Max Gloskey (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) had the fastest time in the prelims of 110-meter hurdles by seven-tenths of a second, hitting the finish line in 14.90 seconds.
Zack Wigent (Fariport, NY/Fairport) also qualified with the seventh-best time.
Ellyson Grant (Newburgh, NY/Newburgh Free Academy) qualified for the finals of the 400-meter hurdles, recording a time of 59 seconds.
RIT will have four men in the championship of the 110-meter dash.
Matthew Lienhard (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) recorded the fourth-fastest time finishing in 11 seconds.
Curtis Geiger (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) (11.01 seconds),
Jon Ennin (Sunnyvale, TX/Sunnyvale) (11.07 seconds) and
Jeff Walter (Buffalo, NY/St. Francis) (11.13 seconds) also qualified. In addition, Gloskey (22.06 seconds), Geiger (22.09 seconds), Ennin (22.44 seconds) and
Stephen Morrissey (New Milford, CT/Trinity-Pawling School) (22.57 seconds) advanced to Saturday's 200-meter dash final.
Christopher Callejo (West Babylon, NY/Patchouge-Medford) had the fifth-best time in the prelims of the 400-meter dash, recording a time of 50.56 seconds.
Zach Thesier (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) qualified for the 800-meter run championship by putting up the eighth-fastest time in the prelims, hitting the line in 1:58.15.
Dan Jones (Lockport, NY/Lockport) also broke two minutes, but placed tenth.
