PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – University of Rochester men's track & field fell just short of a Liberty League outdoor crown, finishing second, just nine points shy of first-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on the final day of the 2023 Liberty League Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Edwin Fauver Stadium.
 
Rochester finished the day with 215 points, nine points shy of RPI's 224. RIT rounded out the top three schools with 172 points, while Ithaca finished fourth with 111 points.
 
UR's Cole Goodman was also named the co-Field Performer of the Week, after winning both the triple and long jump, setting a new school record in the process with a triple jump that ranks second in all of NCAA Division III.
 
The Yellowjackets got their day started claiming their first of five Liberty League titles in the 4x100 meter relay, as Aadit Jain, Mitch Lienert, P.J. London and Manny Eribo combined to beat Ithaca's 4x100 relay by .003 seconds. UR's four came in with a time of 42.306, the 'Jackets best mark this season and an All-Atlantic Regional (AARTFC) qualifying time.
 
Peter Brodnik would score Rochester's next Liberty League title in the 110m hurdles, edging Ithaca's Nate Oczkowski with an AARTFC-qualifying and new personal-best time of 14.99s.
 
Scott Sikorski would notch UR's third Liberty League crown of the day in the 800m, as the senior set a new meet record with his 1:52.16 mark, finishing first among the eight finalists. Brendan McCollum (6th, 1:55.72) and Griffin Weiner (7th, 1:57.07) joined Sikorski on the podium, with both McCollum and Sikorski hitting the regional-qualifying time.
 
In the triple jump, Goodman not only scored a second Liberty League title of the weekend, but the junior also broke a nearly 50-year-old record, breaking Anthony Palumbo's triple jump record with his 15.25m jump.
 
Goodman was also joined by a pair of Yellowjackets on the podium as Sam Lorenzetti also set a new personal best and hit the AARTFC mark with a second-place finish, jumping 14.07m, currently the 40th-best jump in DIII, while Kyle Lane finished fifth, also with a new pr of 13.47m.
 
UR's last individual title of the day came in the decathlon, where Alex Ophsal repeated as the Liberty League champ and Opsahl, Aeden Angelone and Gabe Thyne took the top three spots. Ophsal finished with a new personal-high score of 6,534 points, notching seven new personal bests across the 10 decathlon events, while Angelone came in second with a new high mark of 6,420 points, tallying five personal bests across the 10 events.
 
Both Ophsal and Angelone hit the AARTFC qualifying mark, with Opsahl's score ranking seventh in DIII and Angelone's coming in at 11th.
 
Thyne scored a third-place finish with 5,527 points and four new personal bests. In seventh place, Jack Maness joined the trio on the podium with 4,918 points, tallying eight new personal bests across the 10 decathlon events.
 
Elsewhere on the day, Sikorski added a second-place finish in the 1500m, coming in with a 3:50.30 AARTFC-qualifying time. Brodnik also competed in the 400m hurdles, finishing fourth, clocking in at 56.71, another regional mark. In total, Rochester tallied 17 AARTFC marks, one meet record and one school record.
 
Four 'Jackets made the podium in the 100m, with Lienert and London leading the way with second and third-place finishes. Both hit the regional-qualifying mark, with Lienert coming in a touch under 11 seconds at 10.97, while London clocked in at 11.01. Jain and Eribo also finished seventh and eighth in the event, with times of 11.23s and 11.28s, respectively.
 
Jain also competed and led UR's three top-eight finishers in the high jump, jumping a new personal-best 1.95, good enough to hit the AARTFC mark. Angelone added a fifth-place score at 1.85m, while Lorenzetti also finished at 1.85m, a new high mark for the sophomore.
 
In the 200m, London was UR's lone finalist with a fourth-place finish, clocking in at 22.04, equaling his personal best and an AARTFC mark, while Luke Lyons, Gabe Lundy and Max Creamer all finished in the top seven of the 400m, with Lyons pacing the 'Jackets in third-place.
 
Lyons came in at 48.68, a new pr and AARTFC qualifier, while Lundy finished sixth at 50.17 and Creamer came in sixth at 50.26.
 
In the shot put, James O'Neill finished third with an AARTFC-qualifying throw of 14.35m, while Dylan Rykert added a sixth-place tally, throwing the shot put 13.33m.
 
O'Neill also led Rochester in the discus, finishing sixth with a throw of 42.08m, while Jordan Johnson finished seventh at 41.98m.
 
In the second, and final relay of the day, Rochester's relay team of Lundy, Lyons, Sean Hendricks and Daniel Ford finished second with a time of 3:20.29, another regional qualifier.
 
Rochester will next head to Utica, NY for the CNY Fast Chance Meet on Sunday, May 14 at 10:00 a.m., looking for one last shot at qualifying for the All-Atlantic Region Outdoor Track & Field Championships.