HENRIETTA, NY – The University of Rochester men's track and field squad finished second at the 2026 Liberty League Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday evening at RIT's Gordon Field House.
 
Highlighting the day were two new University records set in sprint events, after a third record fell on day one of the meet yesterday.
 
Junior Elijah VanHoover and first-year Barack Abdallah were the record-breaker's on Saturday, coming in the 60 meter hurdles and 60 meter dash, respectively.
 
Abdallah ended runner-up in 6.93 seconds, breaking the previous record of 6.94 seconds set by Mitch Lienert and Ronan Marston over the last three seasons. VanHoover's record in the hurdles is now 8.41 seconds, trimming .04 off the previous school best, set in 2023 by Peter Brodnik. Both received All-Liberty League honors for their efforts, with Abdallah ending second and VanHoover placing third.
 
Overall on the meet, the Yellowjackets had two event win, ten All-Liberty League finishes and ten All-Atlantic Region qualifying marks.
 
URochester scored 169 team points, ending second in the eight-team competition. Rensselaer took the team title with 203 points, while host RIT was a distant third with 138 points. Ithaca (68), St. Lawrence (52), Union (22), Vassar (9) and Bard (1) rounded out the team field.
 
The Yellowjacket multi-event athletes had a banner day, with all five entries in the heptathlon securing podium finishes. Sophomore Emmett Hansen secured first place across the seven-event competition, scoring 4,771 points over the two days. He was runner-up in the pole vault (4.20 meters), fifth in the 60 meter hurdles (PR 9.04 seconds) and was sixth in the 1000 meters, crossing the finish in 2:56.07. For his efforts, Hansen was named Liberty League Field Performer of the Meet.
 
Teammates Ashton Tokarski, Qullian Shimp, Jack Maness and Brant Nicholls also secured heptathlon top-8 results to score big points for the Yellowjackets.
 
Tokarski ended with personal-best marks in six of the seven events over the weekend and easily scored a personal-record 4,696 points, the #30 score in Division III this season. On day two, Tokarski was fourth in both the pole vault and 1000 meters and was ninth in the 60 meter hurdles.
 
Shimp ended sixth with a personal-best score of 4,367 points, Maness hit a PR score of 4,322 points in a seventh place finish and Nicholls was eighth, scoring 4,245 points. Highlighting Shimp's day was a win in the 1000 meters, where he finished in 2:44.98. Maness was third in the pole vault at 4.10 meters and added personal-records in the two other day two events. Nicholls won and hit a regional qualifier in the pole vault, clearing 4.70 meters, also cracking the NCAA top-50 in the process (#41).
 
Additionally, junior Armaan Butler was a Liberty League champion for URochester, ranking first in the weight throw with a PR toss of 17.29 meters. That mark was a regional qualifier and led three top-5 results for UR.
 
First-year Ethan Kaufman was second with a 15.89 meter toss, also a regional qualifier, while first-year Alex Hermann was fifth, posting a distance of 15.22 meters.
 
The Yellowjacket triple jumpers also saw three finishers on the podium. Sophomore Austin Lansey was second, posting a regional qualifying mark of 14.08 meters. Brighton Lumia ended fifth (12.83 meters), and Kyle Kesley was one spot behind in sixth (12.73 meters).
 
During the 800 meters, a pair of first-year's and one sophomore were all top-6 finishers. Owen Bernstein was third in 1:56.62 (regional qualifier), sophomore Jacob Bernd was fourth in 1:57.06 (regional qualifier) and first-year Austin Skeete was sixth, finishing with a time of 1:57.67.
 
Also in the field, senior Aadit Jain placed third in the high jump, clearing 1.90 meters with his best jump. Teammate Ray Watkins was fifth with a 1.85 meter height.
 
Wrapping up the meet, the Yellowjackets 4x400 meter relay squad of Greg Palma, Lumia, VanHoover and Evan Bryant were second, earning All-Liberty League honors in the process, running a time of 3:22.90, a regional qualifying time.
 
Palma was also a scorer for URochester, leading the Yellowjacket finishers in the 200 meters. He crossed the stripe in 22.49 seconds, good for fifth place, while Abdallah sprinted to seventh in 22.60 seconds. VanHoover also hit another PR in that event, posting a time of 22.84 seconds (11th place).
 
Other scorers on the day were William Stiska in the 60 meters (7th, 7.09 seconds), Jain in the 60 meters (8th, 7.10 seconds), and Owen Alexander in the 60 meter hurdles (6th, 8.65 seconds). Sophomore Liam Sakakeeny finished 15th in the 3000 meters, but did hit the AARTFC qualifying mark in the process, finishing in 8:46.83.