HAMILTON, N.Y. - For the second-straight week it was the running events that paced the Daemen College men's indoor track and field team which finished sixth out of eight competing teams at the Colgate University Class of '32 Invitational at Sanford Field House this afternoon. The Wildcats amassed 46 points in the meet, 33 of which came on the track, to sit comfortably ahead of seventh-place Le Moyne College (29 points). Hamilton College (148 points) edged SUNY Delhi (135 points) to win the scored meet.
Sophomore sprinter/jumper Alex Reid (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) once again paced the Wildcats, accounting for 23 points on his own today. That included runner-up finishes in both the 60-meter dash and long jump. After earning a spot in the 60-meter dash finals with a preliminary time of 7.39 seconds, Reid bested that time with a run of 7.33 seconds, finishing only behind Mohawk Valley Community College's Alex Dankwa (7.18 seconds). Reid's long leap of 6.45 meters was good for second place as well - his third-straight runner-up performance in the long jump - finishing just behind Delhi's Jack Flood (6.46 meters). He earned eight points apiece for his runner-up showings.
Reid added a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash (22.96 seconds) which earned five points and a two-point, seventh-place finish in the triple jump (12.31 meters) for good measure.
Daemen picked up five points in the 3,000-meter run between two competitors. Jeremy Rushok (Akron, N.Y./Buffalo State College) came in sixth place (9:20.72) to earn three points. He was followed closely by Zach Eustance (Hilton, N.Y./Hilton) who completed the race in 9:23.29 to finish in seventh, earning two points.
Sophomore Niko Jemmison (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooklyn Technical) was a point-scorer in multiple events as well. Jemmison was a sixth-place finisher in the 200-meter dash (23.30 seconds) to earn three points. He added another point as the eighth-place finisher in the 400-meter dash with a time 53.02 seconds.
Rounding out Daemen's top runners today was senior Zac Ekdahl (Middlesex, N.Y./Marcus Whitman) who picked up a point with his eighth-place finish in the 800-meter run (2:01.41).
Joining Reid as point-scorers in field events was throwers Patrick Dorsey (Cheektowaga, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) and Brandon Damato (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda) who each scored in the shot put. Dorsey finished seventh with a long toss of 12.02 meters while Damato came in eighth (11.78 meters). Those throws combined to earn three points for the Wildcats.
Daemen closes out its 2014-15 indoor season at next week's East Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship. The event is set to run Feb. 21 at St. Anthony's High School in Huntington, N.Y.
