CORTLAND, NY – The University of Rochester men's track and field team secured three podium finishes, all in field events, competing at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Championships on Wednesday afternoon at SUNY Cortland.
 
Through eight of the 22 events being scored, the Yellowjackets are in 14th place among 33 teams that scored on day one of the two-day competition.
 
Senior thrower Nolan Ragland highlighted the day for Rochester, finishing fourth in the hammer throw with a new personal-best mark of 55.42 meters. That distance moved him ahead of teammate Jordan Johnson for the top throw on Rochester this season and moves Ragland into the top-40 on the Division III performance list this season. Johnson finished ninth on Wednesday, posting a toss of 53.96 meters.
 
Rochester's other scoring results came in the long jump as junior Cole Goodman finished sixth and senior Kyle Lane ended eight. Goodman posted a distance of 7.06 meters, while Lane leapt 6.91 meters to earn his podium spot, Junior Manny Eribo also competed in the long jump, ending 10th at 6.78 meters.
 
In the 4x100 meter relay, the team of Eribo, Mitch Lienert, P.J. London and Evan Bryant secured a top-10 finish, running a time of 42.40 seconds. London also competed in the 100 meter preliminaries on Wednesday, ranking 21st in the field with a 11.12 second sprint.
 
Later on in the 5000 meters, James Catania and Nick Gaitanis placed ninth and 19th, respectively, in the distance event. Catania crossed the finish in 14:57.81, while Gaitanis clocked in at 15:22.37.
 
After five of the ten events in the decathlon, UR has two athletes in the top-8 of the standings. Junior Gabe Thyne sits third with 3,409 points, while first-year Ashton Tokarski is seventh with a 2,987 point total.
 
Thyne's day one featured a win in the decathlon 400 meters in 49.10 seconds, while also finishing third in the high jump (1.83 meters) and fourth in the shot put (10.01 meters). Tokarski's highest finishing event was the 100 meters and high jump, with the first-year placing sixth in both. His 100 meter time of 11.51 seconds was a season-best, while the high jump mark was 1.68 meters.
 
Day two of action at the championship begins on Thursday morning at 10 am.