LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's track and field team had a busy Friday, competing in four events throughout the day. Day one of the George Davis Invitational at home coincided with the Virginia Challenge at the University of Virginia during the afternoon, before graduate student Graham Stedfast (Rowley, Mass.) ran the 800m in the evening at the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California and sophomore Dante Castellano (Nashua, N.H.) ran the 10K at the Sean Collier Invitational at MIT.   

In Lowell at the George Davis Invitational, a small group of throwers competed, with the hammer throw kicking it off. Freshman Kevin Vigneault (Jamesville, N.Y.) led the River Hawks in the field of 20 throwers with a 51.22m mark for fifth place. Freshman Reznor Rokicki (Loveland, Ohio) also competed and finished 17^th with a 36.07m mark in his first collegiate hammer throw.

The shot put was the only other event of the day, and UMass Lowell took five of the first six spots on the leaderboard. Vigneault and freshman Kenneth Kalvinek (Sutton, Mass.) tied for the win at 15.85, but Vigneault earned the victory with his second-best throw of 15.70m. Next was Rokicki in third with a 15.39m mark, before graduate student Ian Camerato (Mount Laurel, N.J.) finished fourth with a toss of 15.20m. Senior Mukanya Kazadi (Woburn, Mass.) finished sixth, reaching 14.61m, and freshman John Kivlan also competed, finishing in 22nd with a throw of 9.98m.    

In Virginia, the 100m prelims started it off, and two River Hawks excelled and qualified for finals. Sophomore Iyanuoluwapo Omisore (Lagos, Nigeria) impressed with a personal-best 10.62 mark for fourth place and the conference's sixth-best time of the season. Just behind him with a qualifying time of 10.69 and an eighth-place finish was sophomore Michael Gyimah (Kumasi, Ghana). Juniors Evan Imasogie (Lowell, Mass.) (10.83) and Daniel Kennedy (Tolland, Conn.) (11.04) also competed, claiming 27^th and 46^th place, respectively, out of 57 runners.  In the finals, Omisore finished in sixth with another 10.62 mark, while Gyimah trailed him in eighth with a time of 10.74.

Next was the 1,500m run, where graduate student Andrew Benassi (Reading, Mass.) represented the River Hawks in 35^th place out of 67 runners with a time of 3:55.27.

Senior Alejandro Lynch (Somerville, Mass.) led the way in the 400m hurdles, crossing the finish line with a 52.96 mark for ninth place out of 39. Behind him was senior Tristan O'Riorden, who finished in 22^nd place with a time of 53.98.   

The 5,000m rounded out the track events for the day in Virginia, as graduate student William Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.) impressed as the only River Hawk, winning the event with an outdoor career-best time of 14:17.10.

The long jump was the only field event of the day, and junior Brandon Riley (Weymouth, Mass.) was the lone River Hawk competitor, leaping to a 6.95m mark for 28^th place out of 45 jumpers.  

Over at the Bryan Clay Invitational against stiff competition, Stedfast ran to a time of 1:50.04 for 73rd place out of 118 runners.

Finally, in the 10,000m at MIT, Castellano claimed fifth place out of eight runner with a time of 30:31.72 in his first career 10,000m run.