AMHERST, N.Y. – Track and field standouts
Taylor Haude (Rochester, N.Y.) and
Sullivan Keller (Alden, N.Y.) have been named the Daemen College Student-Athletes of the Month - presented by Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery PC - for April 2019.
Haude, a 5-foot-7 junior, placed first in the pole vault in two of the three events she took part during the month. She was one of 17 competitors at the Dave Labor Invitational hosted by Slippery Rock University on April 6 and finished tied for fifth with a season-best jump of 3.15 meters. She followed up with a first-place effort (2.75 meters) at the University of Rochester Invitational a week later. Her final appearance of the season came April 20 at the East Coast Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Haude cleared 3.05 meters to claim the ECC pole vault title for the second-straight year. She has also claimed the pole vault title at the last two ECC Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Her first-place showing at the ECC outdoor championships earned her first-team All-ECC honors, marking the sixth All-ECC honor of her career (combined indoor and outdoor). Haude is just the fifth athlete in team history with multiple first-place finishes during the outdoor conference championship meet.
Keller competed in 20 events during the month, recorded 14 top-five and five first-place finishes and set five school records. The 6-foot-3 thrower opened the month with a pair of top-five finishes during the SUNY Geneseo Early Season Invitational. He established a new school record and finished fourth out of 47 competitors in the shot put with a toss of 14.35—eclipsing the previous mark of 13.90 meters set by Mark Fox at the 2013 ECC Championships. He also placed first out of 46 entrants in a javelin with a throw of 46.07 meters.
Just three days later he finished first in all four of the events he competed in at the Allegany County Classic. The highlight of the day came during the hammer throw, as Keller finished first out of nine competitors with a 46.23-meter throw—shattering Patrick Dorsey's team record of 35.38 meters from the ECC Championships in 2015. He also placed first in the shot put (14.29 meters), discus (32.90 meters) and javelin (41.99 meters) during the event.
Another school record and another top-five finish came during the Dave Labor Invitational at Slippery Rock, as he broke his own school record and placed fourth out of 27 throwers in the shot put with a toss of 14.53 meters. That shot put record would only last a week, as Keller broke it again at the University of Rochester Invitational with a throw of 14.74 meters. That effort earned him a first place showing out of 22 competitors.
Keller was far from finished, as a week later he placed second in the shot put (14.40 meters), hammer (47.09 meters) and javelin (41.70 meters) at the ECC Championships. His effort in the hammer throw broke the school record he set a few weeks earlier at the Allegany County Classic.
His second-place showings at the league championships earned him first-team All-ECC honors. He becomes just the second athlete in team history to garner All-ECC honors in three events during the same outdoor season, and the first to do so on the first team (former teammate
Shaquille Corricawas a second-team All-ECC performer in the high jump, triple jump and long jump last season). Keller has now earned All-ECC honors eight times over his indoor and outdoor career.
Additional student-athletes considered for Athlete of the Month honors included Jessica Robins (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) and Christina Stasiuk (Bowmansville, N.Y.) of the women's tennis team and Patrick O'Brien (Pittsford, N.Y.) of the men's tennis team.
