LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's track and field team tallied multiple personal-bests and top-five performances today, splitting time between the George Davis Invitational at home, and the Virginia Challenge hosted by Virginia. 

"It was a great day overall!" said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "It is always awesome to be at home. It's great for our kids to get support from the home crowd. We had well over 100 alumni at the meet, which made it extra special and our kids performed well all weekend, so I couldn't be more happy." 

In Virginia, graduate student Joseph Gaudreau (Wilmington, Mass.) and senior Michael Blake (Hudson, Mass.) competed in the 200-meter run on Saturday, finishing in 15th and 22nd place, respectively, out of 42 total runners. Gaudreau hit a time of 21.68 while Blake crossed the finish line at 22.00.

The men found success in the 100-meter dash, collecting three top-five finishers in graduate student Joseph Young (Shrewsbury, Mass.), junior Aras Kaya (Winchester, Mass.) and junior Baijeon Bookal. They finished consecutively in second to fourth place with respective times of 11.05, 11.22 and 11.31. The team also picked up multiple top finishes and personal-bests from seniors Thomas Jordan (Needham, Mass.) and Hunter Marino (Weymouth, Mass.) in the 200-meter dash. Jordan ended in second with a 21.66 mark, while Marino was just behind him in fourth at 21.98. 

The relay teams proved to be unstoppable, winning both the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relays. The team of Young, junior Adam Katerji (Shrewsbury, Mass.), senior Sean Glass (Haverhill, Mass.) and Bookal clocked in at 42.39, while Marino, Jordan, senior Ryan Casebolt (Boxborough, Mass.) and freshman Basit Iddriss (Milford, Mass.) finished the 1,600-meter relay in 3:59.25.

Sophomore Adnan Abdirahman (Charlestown, Mass.), the top River Hawk in the two mile run, earned a third-place finish with a personal-best time of 9:22.39. In the 110-meter hurdles, it was freshman Tristan O'Riorden that led the way, finishing fourth with a 16.03 mark. Freshman Alejandro Lynch, O'Riorden and Katerji finished in second, fourth and fifth in the 400-meter hurdle, respectively. Lynch finished with a personal-best time of 55.82, while O'Riorden also earned a career record of 56.28. Katerji finished with a time of 56.70.  

Three River Hawks finished consecutively in the 1,500-meter run, with junior Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) leading the way in sixth place with a personal-best time of 4:01.76. Sophomore Sean Riley (Wilmington, Mass.) finished in seventh (4:02.10) with senior Samuel Toolin (North Kingstown, R.I.) just behind him in eighth with a 4:05.31 mark. 

In the field events, sophomore Ian Camerato (Mount Laurel, N.J.) ranked fourth in the discus to lead the River Hawks, tossing a 42.81m mark. Freshman Mukanya Kazadi (Woburn, Mass.) also competed, reaching a personal-best 38.01 meters for ninth place. In the javelin, sophomore James Kotowski won the event with a 68.55-meter throw, followed by junior Robert Townsend (Ashland, Mass.) in third place with a personal-best 56.57-meter toss and junior Zachary Cardoso (Newton, N.H.) in fourth place with a 54.51-meter mark. Graduate student Elie Kalambayi (Lynn, Mass.) ranked second in the long jump, leaping to a 6.79-meter mark while senior Evans Oduro (Kumasi, Ghana) was just behind him in third, reaching 6.70m.

Next up, the River Hawks will travel to the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania, which runs from April 27-April 29.