RALEIGH, N.C. – A small group from the UMass Lowell men's track and field team traveled to Raleigh on Thursday to compete in the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State University, kicking off the outdoor season.

Graduate student James Kotowski (Stoneham, Mass.) got it started in a big way, winning the javelin event with a whopping mark of 73.28m (240' 5").

Later in the day, three River Hawks took part in the 1,500m run, with junior Hatim Boukhtam (Abington, Mass.) leading the way with a 70^th place finish out of 202 finishers and a personal-best time of 3:48.65. Graduate student Paul Neilan was next, claiming 149^th with a 3:54.40 mark, before senior Graham Stedfast (Rowley, Mass.) finished in 178^th with a time of 3:57.05. Senior Andrew Benassi (Reading, Mass.) closed it out for the River Hawks with a 182^nd-place finish and 3:58.52 mark.

Graduate student Joseph Young (Dorchester, Mass.) was the lone competitor in the 3,000m steeple, finishing 50^th with a time of 9:09.30.

The 5,000m run was next, with junior Sean Kennedy-Wonneberger (East Haddam, Conn.) crossing in 113^th place with a time of 14:13.58, as graduate student Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) was next in 143^rd place with a 14:23.36 mark. Freshman Isaac Henderson claimed 186^th place with a 14:40.59 mark.

Just like Kotowski, senior Jan Wouter Van Den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) put on a show, ending the night with the 10,000m school record and zooming to a time of 28:46.34 for 32^nd place out of 111 runners.

"It was the first meet of the spring with some ups and some downs," said Head Coach Gary Garnder. "Great day for Wouter setting a new school record. It was great to see him put a full 10k race together. James opened the season where he left off last year and Hatim ran a PR, which is a great start to his season. Otherwise, the other guys were mostly solid in the season opener."

Next up, the women's squad will return to the track to compete in day two of the Raleigh Relays tomorrow, March 28.