River Hawks Impress at BU Multi Team Invitational

Thursday, January 22

Boston, Mass.

All Day

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Boston University Multi-Team Meet

River Hawks Impress at BU Multi Team Invitational

1/23/2015 12:01:00 AM | Men's Cross Country/Track & Field

Full Results

BOSTON, Mass. – River Hawk men grabbed three first place finishes and knocked down one school record as the UMass Lowell men's Track and Field Team turned in a sparkling performance , Thursday evening, at the Boston University Multi-Team Invitational at the Track and Tennis Center.

This was the first real test for the year and we did great," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "I think that for most of the kids it was their best performance of the year. We had a really nice night as a team.

Junior sprinter Tunde Ogunleye (Fitchburg, Mass.), graduate student middle distance runner Zachary Nelson (Knox, N.Y.), and sophomore high jumper Gilberto Brown (Lowell, Mass.) all took firsts and senior pole vaulter Garrett King (Amesbury, Mass.) set a school record.

Ogunleye won the 400 meters in a time of 49.22-seconds. He topped the rest of the field by just 17-one hundredths of a second. The top five finishers all crossed the finish line within 63-one hundredths of a second.

"He's a fighter and he's fun to watch," said Gardner. "He's never out of a race. You think he's done, he looks terrible and then you'll see him pass somebody; he hates to lose."

Freshman Marcus Duncan (Dalton, Mass.) was in the same group battling toward the finish line. He grabbed fifth with a time of 49.85 second.

Nelson won the mile is a time of 4-minutes, 12.84 seconds. It was a personal best and nearly two seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Nelson ran a confident race.

"Zach was telling me all week how well he was going to run," said Gardner. "I was hoping that he was on the right track and Zach ran great. 4:12 is a huge race; it's an IC4A qualifier and it's one of the top times in the conference.

Gardner was pleased not just with Nelson's performance but the effort of all of the team that ran the mile.

"The whole group of milers has been working out really, really well," said Gardner. "I hadn't put them in a position to race well until tonight. They've been doing a lot of hard work."

Senior Aaron Martin (Nashua, N.H.) finished third in a time of 4:15.17 and freshman Randy Nong (Lowell, Mass.) claimed fifth crossing the finish line in a time of 4:16.79.

Brown won the high jump clearing the bar at six-foot, 6 3/4-inches. Teammate junior Oluwatoni Onikeku (Fitchburg, Mass.) also cleared the height but Brown won a jump off between the two to claim the top spot.

King took second in the pole vault clearing the bar at, a school record, 15-feet 5 1/2-inches. The vault adds a half inch to the record King set a year ago.

"Garrett has looked better each passing week," said Gardner. "I am sure he will push the record even higher as the year progresses."

Sophomore John Fiorello (Tewksbury, Mass.) earned a second place finish in the shot put. He heaved the metal ball 50-feet 8 1/4-inches.

Senior Cameron Kelley took second in the 800 meters with a time of 1:56.64.

The River Hawks also took a second with a strong performance from the 4 x 400 meter relay team. The group of Duncan, Ogunleye, senior Cameron Mitchell (Wakefield, Mass.) and freshman Ian Allen (Plymouth, Mass.) finished with a time of 3:20.83.

The River Hawks return to competition Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31, at the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University.