BOSTON, Mass. – A small of group of UMass Lowell men's and women's indoor track and field athletes traveled to Boston on Friday morning to compete in day one of the NEICAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Reggie Lewis Track Center.

The men's weight throw kicked off the field events and freshmen Reznor Rokicki (Loveland, Ohio) and Kenneth Kalvinek (Sutton, Mass.) finished consecutively on the leaderboard, as Rokicki tied for 17^th with a 14.81m mark and Kalvinek finished in 19^th with a 14.54m toss. Freshman Kevin Vigneault (Jamesville, N.Y.) also competed, claiming 21^st place with a 13.98m mark. Freshman Rere Edokpolo (Manchester, N.H.) was the lone River Hawk in the long jump, finishing in 17th with a 6.26m leap.

The 500m prelim kicked off the track events, and freshman Raymond Dafe (Lowell, Mass.) led the way in seventh out of 19 with a time of 1:06.09 to qualify for finals. Freshman Abdul Jalloh (Lowell, Mass.) also raced, claiming 15^th with a 1:07.02 mark. Next was the 800m prelims, where sophomore Jamie Lano (Strafford, N.H.) finished in ninth place to narrowly miss out on a finals qualification with a time of 1:55.10. Sophomore Tyler Rothrock (Allentown, Pa.) also ran, finishing in 14^th with a time of 1:59.32.

Sophomore Michael Gyimah (Kumasi, Ghana) represented the River Hawks in the 200m dash prelims, qualifying for finals with a fifth-place effort and time of 22.22. This was followed up by the 5,000m run, where sophomore Jack Courtney was the lone competitor and finished in fifth place out of 21 runners with a personal-best time of 14:48.42.

In the women's pentathlon, freshman Nyrah Joseph (Billerica, Mass.) third with 3,141 points, while graduate student Fleur Balogh competed in three of the five events. Joseph claimed second in the 60m hurdles (9.14) while Balogh finished third (9.30), before Balogh cleared 1.56m for a tie for first in the high jump and Joseph claimed fifth place (1.50m). Balogh won the shot put with an 11.78m mark, before Joseph finished third with a 10.02m mark, leading to the long jump, where Joseph reached 5.12m for third place. The 800m run rounded out the pentathlon and Joseph finished in sixth with a time of 2:45.06.

The men finished up the first four events of the heptathlon, and senior Derek Munroe (Tewksbury, Mass.) ended the day in second place with 2,776 points. Sophomore Camren Allain (Carver, Mass.) was not far behind him in fifth place with 2,599 points after day one and Brandon Riley competed in three of the four events. Riley won the 60m dash (6.99) before Munroe claimed fourth (7.34) and Allain seventh (7.39). Riley made it consecutive wins in the long jump (6.83m), while Munroe finished in seventh (6.26m) and Allain finished in 12^th (5.83m).

Munroe then earned a victory in the shot put, reaching 14.04m, while Riley was third (12.28m) and Allain was seventh (10.79m), leading to the final event of the day, the high jump. Allain won the high jump, clearing 1.96m, before Munroe claimed seventh place (1.81m).

The River Hawks will return to compete in day two of the NEICAAA Indoor Track and Field Championships tomorrow, Saturday, March 7 at Reggie Lewis Track Center in Boston, Mass.