The Binghamton’s men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at the America East (AE) Outdoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend. The men finished third while the women placed sixth, both out of nine teams.
The Great Danes took the team championship on both sides for the eighth straight year.
Senior Joe Miceli took home the AE title in two events and was named the Most Outstanding Men’s Field Athlete, highlighting the Bearcats’ performance at the meet.
Miceli won the pole vault (16-8¾) and the decathlon, breaking the Binghamton program record in the latter with a score of 6,734. The wins made Miceli an AE champion for the third time in his career, as he won the heptathlon at the indoor championships this past winter.
Senior Pat Heikkila took the top spot in the shot put, throwing a distance of 52-10¼. He also finished second in the hammer throw, scoring a total of 18 points for the Bearcats at the meet.
BU head coach Mike Thompson was very impressed by Miceli’s performance as well as those of the other men’s field athletes.
“He performed extremely well, it’s very difficult to do the decathlon and the pole vault,” Thompson said. “The field event athletes really had a fantastic meet top to bottom.”
On the track, junior Eric Holt won the 1,500-meter, putting down the fastest time in the prelims and taking the finals in the 3:56.04. Holt finished second in this event two years ago and third last year.
Graduate student Jesse Garn, who won the 1,500-meter last year at this meet, had to step off the track partway through his 1,500-meter prelims due to a cramped calf muscle. Despite not being able to compete, Garn is expected to recover in time for the rest of the Bearcats’ meets.
Although the Bearcats failed to meet their goal to finish second on the men’s side, Thompson was pleased with the team’s performance.
“We had a couple of things happen on the men’s side that moved us to third,” Thompson said. “But I think we competed really well.”
He expressed similar sentiments regarding the performance of the women’s team.
“I thought that a lot of people competed really well but on the women’s side it was close,” Thompson said. “We were really hoping to be fifth; it just wasn’t a perfect meet and we needed a perfect meet.”
On the women’s side, junior Sarah Osaheni had the best finish, placing second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:02.04.
“Sarah [Osaheni] had a really solid meet,” Thompson said. “That was really huge for her.”
The 4×800-meter team ran 9:16.14, good enough to place third and break the six-year old Binghamton program record of 9:17.00. That team was composed of seniors Nina Sarmiento and Alexis Hatcher and juniors Alana MacDonald and Eileen O’Hara.
“I thought the girls competed hard; we just need more depth,” Thompson said. “The people we had gave it everything they had.”
Looking ahead, Thompson’s focus is on qualifying more athletes to the NCAA Regional meet. His goal is to have five athletes make the meet; so far three have qualified.
The Bearcats are set to compete next at the ECAC/IC4A Championships, hosted by Princeton, this weekend. The meet will take place from May 13-15 at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey. Start times have yet to be announced.