The men’s track and field team hosted the Bison Outdoor Classic at the Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for its first home meet of the season on April 12 and 13. 10 members of the men’s team qualified for the IC4A Championships as a result of their strong performances.

“The men’s team has been getting consistently better every week,” Christian Lupica ’15 said. “We are definitely on the right track to be at our best once the league championships and post-season meets roll around which sets us up perfectly to bring home the team title.”

On the first day, Tyler Erhard ’14 and Andrew Garcia-Garrison ’15 led the Bison effort on the track.  Erhard finished third (9:10.16) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Garcia-Garrison also placed third (14:28.43) in the 5,000-meter race. Both qualified for the IC4A along with Eric Balaban ’14 who completed the 10,000-meter race and came in  20th overall (30:44.00).

In the field, Kevin Tapper ’15 tallied the only victory for the Bison, registering 22-09.00 in the long jump. In throws, Jack Fellows ’15 and Brian Monahan ’15 finished fifth (157-07) and sixth (150-00) place respectively. Fellows’ heave also qualified him for the IC4A meet. Laddie Trees ’15 also hurled his way into the IC4As with a sixth place finish in the javelin (196-04).

On the final day of the Bison Outdoor Classic, Tapper added to his success by placing second in the 400-meter race (48.24), enough to qualify him for the IC4A meet. In addition, Lupica gave the Bison another second place finish in the 110-meter hurdles (14.18). The 4×100-meter relay team of Patryk Najbar ’14, Kamal Riley ’14, Jacob Eaton Hall ’14 and Lupica recorded another qualifying time for the IC4A (41.77).

Nathaniel Witter ’14 brought the Orange and Blue victory in the field on Sunday, clearing 15-03.00 on his way to a first-place finish in pole-vaulting. In addition, Ray Holmes ’14 leapt a distance of 47-06.50 to register a second-place finish. Fellows completed the shot put with a toss of 53-01.50, which easily qualified him for IC4As. Fellows added to his weekend’s performance by placing third in the hammer (174-02) for his third IC4A qualification. Monahan added to the Bison presence in the shot put with a throw of 52-00.00 to give him a third-place finish and an IC4A berth.

“As a whole, our men are getting a little better each week and with three weeks until Leagues, our timing of the peak should be right on,” head coach Kevin Donner said. “The Bison Outdoor Classic is usually when we see the performances start to improve and this year was no different. We just need to get over the hump with a few injuries and then we will be ready to hit leagues at a high level.”

The Bison men will hope to carry the momentum forward when they host the Bucknell Team Challenge tomorrow at home.