Many members of the Bison women’s and men’s track and field teams qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) championships during the Bison Outdoor Classic on April 13-14. For the women’s team, Kaitlin Salisbury ’20 took first place in the 100-meter race and Harper Stewart ’19 earned a victory in the heptathlon. On the men’s side, Matt Fay ’19 won the pole vault at 16-6 ¾, while Billy Melchionni ’19 took first in the 400 (47.43), beating the second place athlete by just under a second.

On the first day of competition, Jake Stupak ’20 qualified with a 1500 meter time of 3:45, the sixth-fastest time in program history. In the 1500 meter race, Brendan McGill ’20 and Owen Chase ’22 finished in 44th and 55th respectively, and they both qualified for the IC4A’s. In the 5000 meter Drew Dorflinger ’20 qualified with a time of 14:26, and Connor McMenamin ’21 finished ninth in the steeplechase with a time of 9:11.

For the women’s team, Salisbury outperformed the entire field in the 100-meter dash with a blistering time of 11.91, the only one in the field to beat 12 seconds. She also finished the triple jump with a score of 39-5 ¾.

The women’s team captain Sydney Contrino ’20 spoke about the success of the team overall as well as preparing for the upcoming Patriot League Championships.

“We had a lot of girls place high in their events even though this meet had over 100 other teams competing,” Contrino said. “We recently got a lot of people back from injuries who are competing really well. We began our tapering, which will help give us the preparation in order to get high marks at the Championships since we will be fresh for the events that day.”

On the second day of competition, the men’s team had more qualifiers for the IC4A’s. Both Robert Dessoye ’21 and Scott Gulizio ’19 qualified in the 800-meter race, with Dessoye placing fifth and Gulizio coming behind in sixth. Jeff Brown ’20 placed fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.85, qualifying as well. The last qualifiers on the day were the members of the 4×100 team of Melchionni, Brown, Ryquan Harris ’20, and Steve Rizio ’20. Their relay placed second with a time of 41.73. In the decathlon, Aiden Brewer ’22 came in second with a total score of 5253, while teammate Tyler Wukitsevits ’21 came in third place with a score of 5230.

“We had some great performances with many high places, personal bests, season bests, ECAC  and IC4A qualifiers, and other solid marks. I feel as though the teams are really starting to come together now,” head coach Kevin Donner said.

The track and field teams will next compete in the Team Challenge on April 20 at Christy-Mathewson Memorial Stadium.