PITTSFORD, NY – The University of Rochester men's track and field opened its 2025-26 season on Friday night, competing at the Nazareth University Alumni Opener at the Golisano Training Center.
 
Rochester piled up five event victories and had six qualifiers attain marks good enough to earn a spot at the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships later in the season.
 
Three of the 'Jacket wins came in the jumping events, with junior Reward Mulauzi winning the long jump, sophomore Austin Lansey winning the triple jump and senior Aadit Jain earning the victory in the high jump. Both Lansey and Jain's marks were AARTFC qualifiers as well, with Lansey posting a 14.00-meter leap and Jain clearing 1.93 meters.
 
In the long jump Mulauzi finished first in a personal-best 6.71 meters, leading a total of five finishers in the top-8. Emmett Hansen was fourth in 6.39 meters, finishing one centimeter ahead of Lansey who was fifth. Kyle Kelsey was sixth at 6.36 meters and Jain ended eighth (6.30 meters).
 
URochester's other individual win came courtesy of Jacob Bernd in the 1000 meters, with the sophomore running a time of 2:36.61. In that same event, teammate Owen Bernstein was runner-up in 2:39.03, while Jack Bunaes was fourth in 2:40.91.
 
In the 4x200 meter relay, the team of Barack Abdallah, Greg Palma, Elijah VanHoover and William Stiska were first in a regional qualifying time of 1:30.60.
 
Also in the field, two throwers, Ethan Beer and Armaan Butler hit regional qualifying marks in the shot put and weight throw, respectively. Beer finished second in 14.95 meters, a new personal-best, while Butler also hit a PR with a fourth place result after a throw of 16.28 meters.
 
Cody Reeth added an AARTFC mark in the pole vault, finishing seventh with a clearance of 4.45 meters.
 
Senior Brendan McCollum ended second in the 500 meters on the track, clocking at 1:06.65, while teammates Henry Hasselbacher (1:10.83) and Tyler Bernstein (1:11.37) were seventh and eighth in the same event.
 
VanHoover clocked in fourth with a personal-record time of 8.56 seconds in the finals of the 60 meter hurdles, and Abdallah added the same result during the 60 meter finals, crossing the finish in 7.06 seconds.
 
Abdallah also ran on Rochester's 4x400 meter relay that finished fifth in 3:28.48. Joining him on the relay squad was Jaubert Black, Trevor Whitney and Evan Bryant. Bryant added an eighth place result individually in the 400 meters, posting a time of 50.92 seconds.
 
Other top finishers on the day include Mulauzi's fifth place result in the triple jump (12.95 meters), Brighton Lumia ranking sixth in the 300 meters (36.89 seconds) and Anthony Cardoso ending eighth in the mile (4:47.79).
 
The Yellowjackets are now off for the winter break and return to action on January 23 for the RIT January Invite.