PITTSFORD, NY – Rochester's men's track and field team got the 2022-23 season off to a fantastic start on Friday evening, competing at the Nazareth College Alumni Opener at the Golisano Training Center.
 
The Yellowjacket men broke two school records, had nine All-Atlantic Regional qualifying performances and piled up ten top-3 results on the night, including one victory.
 
In addition, Rochester is highly ranked on the Division III performance list in several events, including ranking in the top-20 six times.
 
Sophomore's P.J. London and Cole Goodman were the school record breakers. London finished second in the 60 meters in 7.04 seconds, shaving .04 seconds off the previous school record set by Kudzai Mbinda in the 2020 season. Teammate Mitch Lienert ended third with a time of 7.08, matching the old school mark as well, with both qualifying for regionals.
 
Goodman had a great day in the horizontal jumps. He set a new school record in the long jump, leaping 7.19 meters, beating the mark of Jonathan Kuberka (7.09m) from 2015. Goodman finished runner-up in that event as well as the triple jump where he posted a distance of 14.36 meters, tying for the winning distance, but lost out on a tiebreaker (second longest jump). His distance currently ranks #3 in Division III and is also #5 in the long jump at the early stages of the indoor track & field season. Both marks were regional qualifiers.
 
Senior Alec Glazier captured the lone UR win on the night, placing first in the mile run, covering the distance in 4:26.52. His time is #16 in Division III so far on the year.
 
During the 400 meter invitational event, grad student Luke Lyons and senior Gabe Lundy clocked in third and fourth, respectively and are both currently inside Division III's top-10 this season. Lyons' time was 49.71 seconds and Lundy finished just behind in 49.82 seconds. Both booked a trip to the All-Atlantic Regional meet in a few months.
 
Two UR relays also ended in second place. The 4x400 meter relay team of Lienert, Gabe Thyne, Brendan McCollum and Lundy posted a time of 3:24.76 to qualify for regionals and ranked #6 in Division III. Additionally, the 4x200 meter relay team of Aadit Jain, London, Manny Eribo and Peter Brodnik crossed the finish as runner-up in 1:34.00.
 
James O'Neill was a regional qualifier in the shot put, earning a distance of 14.14 meters, ranking among the top-30 in Division III. His mark earned him a third place finish.
 
Brodnik also was a regional qualifier in the 60 meter hurdles, posting a time of 8.67 seconds in the preliminary heat. In the final he ran 8.75 seconds to end in sixth place overall.
 
The Yellowjackets added several other top-8 finishes on opening night.
 
McCollum (2:34.81) and Max Hughes (2:38.54) were third and fourth respectively in the 1000 meters. Skye Crocker finished in sixth in the same race with a time of 2:40.32.
 
During the weight throw, Joe Bumpus (13.94 meters) led UR's entrants with a fourth place finish. Jordan Johnson ended seventh at 13.73 meters and O'Neill was eighth with his throw of 13.56 meters.
 
Brennan Hong finished the pole vault in seventh with a height of 4.10 meters, while Eribo ended in the same spot in the 60 meters, clocking in with a time of 7.33 seconds.
 
Max Creamer finished fifth in the 500 meters (1:09.54) and Sam Lorenzetti added a fifth place result for Rochester in the triple jump, recording a leap of 13.23 meters.
 
Rochester will head into the holiday break with some momentum from the strong opening meet to the season and will return to action on January 21st at the SUNY Brockport Winter Invitational.