DRAMATIC WIN FOR SAINTS AT NYSCTC INDOOR MEET

Mar. 1: It doesn’t get any closer than the finish of the 2008 New York State Collegiate Track Conference men’s indoor championship at the Newell Field House on Saturday afternoon as St. Lawrence University's men's team edged Buffalo State for its second straight indoor crown.

 

St. Lawrence won the 4x800 relay to take a 6.5 point lead on the Bengals, but needed at least a fifth place finish in the final race of the day, the 4x400 relay to hold on to the lead if Buffalo State was to win the relay as expected. The Saints got their fifth place finish, edging Ithaca by .02 seconds, and won their second straight championship with 127.5 points with Buffalo State second with 127 in a 15-team field.

 

Cortland finished a distant third with 103 points while RIT was fourth with 83. Saint coach Mike Howard and his staff was named NYSCTC men's Coaching Staff of the Year while Dan Ramsey was the 2008 NYSCTC indoor Rookie of the Year.

 

The Saints, RIT, Ithaca and RPI all battled for the fourth, fifth and sixth slots throughout the 4x400 as the Saints consistently picked up ground on the passes. John DeLago took the baton from Joe Shehata for the second leg and immediately picked up two spots, weaving through traffic after the pass. Craig DiGiovanni held the Saints in the top five on the third leg and Jay Thornhill went out fast and held off Ithaca’s Joel Trager at the finish for the key fifth-place finish. The Saints ran 3:28.84, .07 behind fourth place RIT while Buffalo State won the race in 3:23.84.

 

The 4x800 win which set up the Saints’ seventh team crown since the meet started in 1966, was somewhat less dramatic as David Lloyd established a Saint lead on leg two and Brandon Kenny and Mark Burnham steadily lengthened it. Chris Funch led off and was even with RIT’s Nick Meeker at the pass and Lloyd opened it up on leg two. The Saints finished in 7:56.73 with RIT second in 8:04.79.

 

In addition to the relays, the Saints had their fourth individual title of the meet and an improvement in a SLU record as senior thrower Geoff Grambo improved his own SLU shot put record with a winning throw of 16.46 meters (54-0). Gabe McBride added a sixth in the event with a 14.13 meter throw.

 

The Saints also got a second place finish in the 3000 from Friday’s 5000 meter winner Ramsey as he ran 8:37.35, trailing only Seth Dubois of Cortland who set a Newell record with his win in 8:29.49.

 

Newell records also fell in the 800 as Justin Wager of Cortland won in 1:52.21, taking .31 seconds off the previous mark and Hamilton’s Peter Kosgei set Newell and meet records in both the 1000, winning in 2:27.82, nearly three seconds better than the previous mark, and the mile with a 4:10.54 clocking which is also nearly three seconds faster than the previous record.

 

Nick Perzanoski finished off a meet which included titles in the pentathlon and long jump with a seventh in the 55 hurdles. Adding in his share of points from the lead leg in the third-place 4x200 relay, the Saint senior accounted for 28 points in the meet.

 

Thornhill added a third place finish in the 200 in 22.54 to his anchor leg on the 4x400 on Saturday and Devaun McFarlane finished seventh in the 200. Lloyd was third in 2:33.90 and Kenny fourth in 2:34.08 in the 1000.

 

Other Saturday scorers for the Saints included DeLago with a sixth in the 400, Funch with a sixth place finish and Shehata with a seventh in the 500, Donhoe was fifth in the mile and Burnham was fifth and Donohoe eighth in the 800.

 

The Saints will compete in the ECAC Championships next weekend.

 

RAMSEY, PERZANOSKI WIN TITLES AS SAINTS ARE 1ST AFTER DAY ONE

Feb. 29: Rookie Dan Ramsey won the 5000 meters in an outstanding race and Nick Perzanoski won the high jump as the Saints came out of day one of the NYSCTC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Newell Field House with the team lead over Buffalo State.

 

The Saints lead the 15 team field with 54.50 points while the Bengals are second at 47 and Ithaca and Brockport tied for 32 heading into a full day of events on Saturday.

 

Ramsey, Rochester’s Dan Mueller and Geneseo’s Tom Reubens ran as a pack nearly the entire 25 laps of the 5000 and Ramsey led for all but a half lap. Mueller, who finished second, took a brief lead with 800 meters to go, but Ramsey battled right back into the lead and kicked away on the final lap, winning in 15:02.23 with Mueller second in 15:05.57. Ithaca’s Tim Shea passed Reubens on the final lap to finish third.

 

Perzanoski, who won the pentathlon title last Sunday, jumped 6.77 meters (22-2.5) for his title in the long jump and added another 2.5 points to his individual point total with a tie for sixth in the high jump.

 

Other Saint scorers in Friday’s opening events included a fourth by Eric Jones with a 15.83 meter throw in the weight with Jesus Ruiz scoring in seventh with a personal best of 14.75 meters. The Saints also got an eighth place finish in the 5000 by John Ostler.

 

SLU picked up relay points in both the Distance Medley Relay and the 4x200. The DMR finished second in 10:12.32 in a tight race with RIT. The Saint team included David Lloyd, Terrance Fox, Mark Burnham and Erik Donohoe. The 4x200 relay team of Perzanoski, Jon Mellinger, Devaun McFarland and Jay Thornhill was 3 rd in 1:33.40.

 

Perzanoski advanced to Saturday’s final in the 55 meter hurdles while Thornhill and McFarland qualified for the 200 final and John DeLago qualified for the 400 meter final.