Fredonia men earned 13.5 team points on the first day of the 2018 SUNYAC Outdoor Track & Field championship meet at SUNY Geneseo. The bulk of the scoring came form senior Justyn Haines (Albion/Albion), who was crowned conference champ in the pole vault.
The team finished in sixth at the SUNYAC Championship Meet following the second day of competition on Saturday.
Haines won the title by clearing 4.55 meters (14 feet, 11 inches) on his first try at the height. He then cleared a personal-best 4.88 meters -- just over 16 feet -- and attempted 4.91 meters before fouling out. His previous-best was 4.75 meters on Feb. 10 at Tiffin, Ohio. He was second in the pole vault at the 2018 SUNYAC Indoor meet.
Based on the national performance lists coming into the weekend, Haines is No. 12 nationally among NCAA Division III men -- a placement that would earn him a spot at the national meet later this month. He also moved up to No. 2 on the Fredonia Outdoor Top 10 performance list.
Fredonia earned 2.5 more points in the pole vault as freshman Jonah McGrath (Penfield/Penfield) cleared 4.40 meters (14 feet, 5 1/4 inches) to tie for sixth and earned one point in the long jump as freshman Dan Sudyn (West Seneca/West Seneca West) taped out at 6.54 meters (21 feet, 5 1/2 inches) to finish eighth. He was the top freshman in the event.
In addition, freshman Mike DeLand (Dunkirk/Dunkirk) ran a personal-best 51.51 seconds in the 400 meters, while senior Mitchel Paciga (Jeffresonville/Sullivan West) was fifth in the decathlon with 5,301 points. The top score was 6,111 by Cortland's Zachary Kashmer.
Damone Brown (Haverstraw/North Rockland) was the top performer for Fredonia, finishing second in the shot put and third in the discus. Brown recorded a distance of 14.85 m (48' 8 3/4'') in the shot put. He threw the discus 43.36 m (142' 3''). He was 3.46 meters from the top throw of 46.82 by Brockport's Tony DeYoung. Fellow Blue Devil Jordan Toland (Lockport/Lockport) earned points with a seventh-place throw of 39.77 m (130' 5'').
Nick Serafin (Depew/Depew) and Paciga both pointed in the high jump. Serfin was third with a jump of 1.95 m (6' 4 3/4''), and Paciga went 1.85 m (6' 0 3/4''). Sudyn (West Seneca / West Seneca West) was 13.55 in the triple jump for seventh place.
The 4x400 relay team of Michael Salvati (Avon, N.Y./Avon), Marcus Torres (Goshen/Goshen), Merlin Joseph Jr. (Binghamton/Binghamton), DeLand were sixth in 3:26.28. The 4x100 squad of Salvati, Sudyn, Torres, and Haines finished seventh in 44.21.
Fredonia earned 48 points in the meet. Geneseo won the team championship with a score of 208.16.
