CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's outdoor track and field team sent a group of competitors to MIT on Thursday afternoon to participate in the MIT Final Qualifier at Steinbrenner Stadium, collecting many top performances.

"We had an absolutely fabulous day," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "Coming off of conference, you'd think there might be a let down. Instead, the majority of our kids achieved personal bests. I am really proud of them continuing to improve."

The 3,000m steeplechase kicked it off, and four River Hawks raced. Senior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.) led the group, finishing second out of 13 runners with a 9:11.81 mark, just before junior David McKinnon (Bloomsbury, N.J.) broke his personal record with a 9:13.84 mark for fourth place. Junior Seyha Rath (Lowell, Mass.) also hit a personal best in his 11^th place effort, finishing in 9:56.34, before graduate student Landen Vaillancourt (New Ipswich, N.H.) claimed 13^th with a 10:09.18 mark in his first career steeplechase.

In the 800m, senior Basit Iddriss (Milford, Mass.) led a pair of River Hawks with a personal-best time of 1:50.39 for fifth place out of 23 runners. Sophomore Tyler Rothrock (Allentown, Pa.) was the other UMass Lowell runner to compete, finishing in 19^th place with a time of 1:55.77.

In the 200m dash, sophomore Dmitrius Shearrion (Taunton, Mass.) shined, finishing in third overall out of 22 runners with a personal-best time of 21.66. Freshman Raymond Dafe (Lowell, Mass.) also hit a personal-best time of 22.80 to finish in 17^th place overall.

In the field events, three River Hawks placed within the top half of the 13-thrower discus field, as freshman Reznor Rokicki (Loveland, Ohio) picked up the win with a 49.36m mark, while graduate student Ian Camerato (Mount Laurel, N.J.) finished third with a 44.99m mark and freshman Kenneth Kalvinek (Sutton, Mass.) claimed sixth, reaching 43.68m.

Next was the long jump, where junior Kuzey Kaya (Winchester, Mass.) led the River Hawks in sixth place out of nine with a 6.45m leap. Freshman John Kivlan (Chelmsford, Mass.) also competed, reaching 6.28m for ninth place.

Two jumpers participated in the high jump, as freshman Rere Edokpolo (Manchester, N.H.) finished 11^th with a 1.87m mark, one placement above sophomore Jack Shepherd, who finished 12^th with the same mark. In the pole vault, senior Derek Munroe (Tewksbury, Mass.) was the lone River Hawk, finishing in 12^th place with a 4.43m mark.

The shot put concluded the field events, and Camerato led the River Hawks in sixth place out of 12 throwers, earning a personal-best 15.38m mark in his final throw. Kalvinek finished just behind him in seventh place, reaching 15.25m. Rokicki also competed, claiming ninth place with a 14.12m toss.