HENRIETTA, NY – The University of Rochester men's track and field team competed at the RIT January Invitational on Friday evening at the Gordon Field House, coming away with five event wins and five All-Atlantic Regional qualifying performances.
 
Overall, URochester had 11 top-3 results on the day along with multiple personal-best records secured.
 
On the track, the Yellowjackets closed out the meet strong with wins in the final two events of the night, the 4x200 meter relay and 4x400 meter relay.
 
In the 4x200 race, the team of Barack Abdallah, Greg Palma, Elijah VanHoover and Evan Bryant were first across the finish line in 1:31.77, beating the mark to qualify for the AARTFC meet.
 
Up next, it was the 4x400 meter relay's turn, with the quartet of Jack Bunaes, Brighton Lumia, Jacob Bernd and Brendan McCollum earning the win with a group time of 3:35.09.
 
Elsewhere on the track, Liam Sakakeeny ended first in the mile run with a time of 4:26.40, while two other teammates, Bernd (4:30.34) and Austin Skeete (4:30.71), cracked the top-10, running eighth and tenth, respectively.
 
Abdallah also excelled individually in the 60 meter dash, placing second in the finals heat with a time of 6.99 seconds, qualifying for the regional competition later this season. In the prelims, Abdallah, Aadit Jain (7.16 seconds) and Jaubert Black (7.24 seconds) were all inside the top-10.
 
URochester had three of the top-6 finishers in the 300 meters, led by Evan Bryant in second place. Bryant finished in 36.85 seconds, while teammate Quillan Shimp was fourth (37.31 seconds) and Tyler Bernstein placed sixth (37.90 seconds).
 
Both VanHoover and Black also ran in the 60 meter hurdles event and ended in the top-5. VanHoover's performance was 8.63 seconds, good for third, while Black clocked in at 8.99 seconds, ranking fifth during the finals. Shimp also ended tenth with a prelim time of 9.04 seconds.
 
In the field events, Austin Lansey and Jain were individual winners and qualified for regionals, while Ethan Beer ranked second in the shot put and also had a regional qualifying mark.
 
Jain won the high jump with a 1.93 meter clearance, with teammate Ray Watkins winding up in a tie for seventh with a 1.78 meter height.
 
Lansey led three 'Jackets in the top-5 in the triple jump with his AARTFC mark of 13.72 meters. Kyle Kelsey hit an indoor PR of 12.89 meters to rank third, while Reward Mulauzi was fifth in 12.78 meters.
 
Beer's runner-up shot put toss was 14.76 meters and booked him a spot at regionals.
 
During the long jump, both Mulauzi and teammate Ashton Tokarski tied for fourth place with identical 6.66 meter jumps. Tokarski's leap was a new personal-best.
 
Other top finishers from URochester on the day were McCollum in the 400 meters (8th, 51.80 seconds), Brant Nicholls in the pole vault (11th, 4.15 meters), Trevor Kuhlman in the 800 meters (11th, 2:03.82), Lumia in the 200 meters (16th, 23.45 seconds) and Armaan Butler in the weight throw (16th, 14.40 meters).
 
The Yellowjackets next compete at the Nazareth University Conference Challenge Cup in Pittsford, NY next Saturday.