Syracuse University
Syracuse Invitational (Multi-events)
Three Meets on Tap for Orange Tracksters
2/5/2009 11:44:46 AM | Track and Field
Men's 2009 Indoor Results
Women's 2009 Indoor Results
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After the men's and women's track & field team put its best foot forward at one of the season's most competitive meet at the Penn State National Open last weekend, the Orange will not only cover its home base at Manley Field House but spread out its talent to New York City and Maryland on Friday and Saturday.
Syracuse will host the Syracuse Invitational at Manley Field House on Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7. Thus far, Brockport, Cobleskill, Colgate, Cortland, Erie CC, Geneseo, Hamilton, Mohawk Valley, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Rochester, RIT and Union College are all slated to partake in the two-day event. The competition is set to commence at 3:00 pm on Friday and will continue all day on Saturday. This weekend's occasion at Manley Field House will be the final event hosted by the Orange this season.
The Orange will also compete at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational staged at the highly-acclaimed Armory Track located on 168th Street in Manhattan. The New Balance Invite is a two-day event on Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7 and is considered one of the most elite indoor track & field competitions. Syracuse will test its sprinting corps against the country's finest on both Friday and Saturday. Friday's events are scheduled to start at 11:45 am and Saturday's first gun will sound at 9:00 am.
Head coach Chris Fox will bring some of his up and coming distance talent to the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships in Derwood, Md. on Saturday, Feb. 7. The men's contigent will be challenged with an 8K event while the women will face a 6K test to round out the trio of events the Orange will embark upon this weekend.
Last weekend, sophomore sprinter Flings Owusu-Agyapong thrice broke the Syracuse school record in the 60-meter dash in the prelims, semi-finals and final rounds. Owusu-Agyapong posted her best time in the semi-final round of the 60-meter dash with an NCAA Provisional-qualifying mark and new-school record of 7.42. In the eight-man final, Owusu-Agyapong provided the Orange with a third-place finish in the 60-meter dash with an NCAA Provisional-qualifying run of 7.43.
Second-year harriers Katie Hursey and Catherine DeSarle painted the top of the 3,000-meter run Orange, finishing first and second, in that order, with ECAC-appropriate times of 9:47.14 and 9:50.42. Both marks top the SU charts for the two fastest times in the 3K thus far.
Freshman Karelle Edwards broke off a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles event with an ECAC-qualifying time of 8.76 in the preliminaries. Sophomore Uhunoma Osazuwa finished in eighth place with 3,504 points in the pentathlon on Friday. Osazuwa finished second in the high jump with a mark of 1.67m for her best showing of the day.
Junior Jon Buice was the toast of Happy Valley in the heptathlon, not only taking first place, but resetting his old mark of last year for a new Orange school record. Buice's 5,259 points is a new Syracuse standard in the men's indoor heptathlon; the old benchmark was his own score he set last season with 5,068 points. On Friday, Buice racked up two first-place finishes, a third-place showing and a fourth-place finish. Buice won the long jump crown with a leap of 6.66m and the high jump title with an IC4A-mark of 2.07m. On Saturday, Buice scored a second, third and eighth place finish to hold onto the victory by a 96-point margin. Buice picked up second with a BIG EAST-qualifying time of 8.41 in the 60-meter hurdles and third in the pole vault with a spring of 4.30m.
In his first race back in more than a year, sprinter Mike LeBlanc put up a good fight against the nation's elite in the 60-meter dash. The Riverview, New Brunswick made the grade for the final heat, missing the first-place crown by a mere seven one-thousandth of a second with an NCAA Provisional-qualifying time of 6.72 for second place. Sophomore Shamel Lewis also earned a spot in the last leg of the 60-meter, finishing in sixth place with an IC4A-qualifying time of 6.79.
Sophomore Jarret Eaton continues to make his presence felt on the track & field scene with a second-place, NCAA Provisional-qualifying beat of 7.87 in the 60-meter hurdles. Eaton's best time came in the semi-final stage with a time of 7.85, berthing him into the eight-man final.
Senior Kyle Heath, SU's first All-American distance runner since Jim O'Connell in 1983, returned to prime form in his first race of 2009 with a swift rate of 4:01.47, good enough for third place and an NCAA Provisional-qualifying bid.
In the men's 3,000-meter run, junior Jay Koloseus made the IC4A grade with a sixth-place finish of 8:16.59 while junior Curtis Bixler came in 14th with a time of 8:34.45. Turning to the distance events, sophomore Steven Weeks became IC4A-eligible in the 5,000-meter race with a seventh-place mark of 14:36.36.
