BOSTON, Mass. –  The UMass Lowell men's track and field team found success on day one of the 2026 America East Indoor Championships at the Track & Tennis Center at Boston University, ending the day in first place with 52 points.

New Hampshire sits in second place with 47 points, while Binghamton rounds out the top three with a total of 39.

"We advanced everybody we should have, which puts us in a good spot," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "The men are poised to compete for a championship tomorrow. Day one is more about survival and getting kids to day two and we have everybody healthy for day two. So, we just have to compete the same way tomorrow and chips fall where they fall, but we'll be there with everybody else, so hopefully things fall our way."

The 1,000m run got the running events started in a big way for the River Hawks, as senior Andrew Benassi (Reading, Mass.) finished in second place with a personal-best time of 2:24.86 to earn eight points for the team. Sophomore Jamie Lano (Strafford, N.H.) finished fourth for five points, earning a personal-best 2:26.05 mark. Freshman Joshua Toth (Milton, Mass.) finished in sixth place with a personal-best time of 2:27.80 for three points, while sophomore Tyler Young (Marion, Mass.) scored for the squad as well, racking up two points in seventh place with a personal-best time of 2:28.37.

The team had two runners qualify for finals in the 60m hurdles, as senior Tristan O'Riordan finished the prelims in fifth place with a personal-best time of 8.36 and junior Brandon Riley (Weymouth, Mass.) claimed seventh with an 8.30 mark.  In the 400m dash prelims, sophomore Michael Fisher (Wallingford, Conn.) zoomed to a first-place finish to qualify for finals with a 48.05 mark. Junior Anthony Massari (Dumont, N.J.) just missed out on qualifying in 11^th place with a time of 48.87. Senior Alejandro Lynch (Somerville, Mass.) shined in the 500m dash prelims, making finals with his third-place performance and 1:04.04 mark.

Two more River Hawks punched their tickets to finals in the 60m dash, as junior Daniel Kennedy (Tolland, Con.) finished in third with a 6.83 mark, before junior Evan Imasogie (Lowell, Mass.) claimed fourth right behind him with a time of 6.87.

Next was the 5,000m, where the River Hawks exploded for 22 points as a team with four top six finishers, including sophomore Isac Henderson, who won the race with a personal-best time of 14:12.36 for 10 points. Sophomore Devin Moreau (Tyngsboro, Mass.) was next in fourth with a 14:16.67 mark for five points, before graduate student Will Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.) claimed fifth place and four points with a 14:20.13 mark and graduate student Jan Wouter van den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) earned sixth with a 14:27.96 mark for three points.

In the 200m dash prelims, sophomore Iyanuoluwapo Omisore (Lagos, Nigeria) led the way with a second-place finish and personal-best time of 21.61 to qualify for finals. O'Riorden fell just short of qualification in 11^th place with a personal-best time of 21.84.

The final track event of the day was the 4,000m DMR, where the team of senior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.), senior Basit Iddriss (Milford, Mass.), junior Dennis Satchek (Boston, Mass.) and graduate student Nate DeAngelo (Bristol, Conn.) finished in fourth place with a time of 9:58.04.

In the field events, senior Derek Munroe (Tewksbury, Mass.) kicked it off with a point in the pole vault, finishing eighth with a 4.45 mark. Next was the weight throw, where freshman Kenneth Kalvinek (Sutton, Mass.) led the team in 10^th with a personal-best 16.18m toss, before freshman Reznor Rokicki (Loveland, Ohio) claimed 12^th with a 15.48m mark and freshman Kevin Vigneault (Jamesville, N.Y.) finished 14^th with a personal-best 15.01m mark.

Riley earned a personal-best 7.05m mark in the long jump to finish in third place overall and earn six points for the team, rounding out the field events for the day. He also competed in the heptathlon, ending the day in second place with 3,021 points. Munroe was just behind him in third with a total of 2,860 points heading into day two.

In the heptathlon 60m dash, Riley finished second with a 6.91 mark while Munroe was in third with a personal-best time of 7.15. Riley finished second once again in the heptathlon long jump, hitting 6.95m, while Munroe reached 6.48m for a tie for fourth place. Munroe led the way in the shot put, earning a 13.97m mark for second place, while Riley finished in fourth with a personal-best 12.60m mark. The high jump finished off the day for the heptathlon, as Riley (1.84m) and Munroe (1.78m) finished consecutively in sixth and seventh place, respectively.  

The River Hawks will now compete for a championship on Saturday, February 21.