Matthews Earns USTFCCCA Indoor Track & Field All-Region Honors

3/15/2023 11:47:00 AM

By: CONTACT: Tom McDermott, Director of Athletics Communications | tmcdermo@daemen.edu

AMHERST, N.Y. – Graduate student Erik Matthews (Galway, N.Y., Ontario) of the Daemen University men's track and field team has earned a spot on the 2023 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Indoor All-East Region team. The announcement was made last week on the USTFCCCA website.

The top-five individuals in each event from each region earned All-Region distinction.

Matthews earned all-region in the heptathlon. He competed in the event at the YSU Mid Major Invitational back on Jan. 27-28 and made history by becoming the first athlete from Daemen to participate in the seven-event heptathlon. The event includes three track events (60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles and 1,000-meter run) and four field events (long jump, high jump, shot put and pole vault). Matthews had never competed in five of the events (60-meter dash, 1,000 meters, high jump, shot put and pole vault) during his career.

He placed second out of 15 runners in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.35 seconds, seventh out of 13 in the long jump (6.13 meters), eighth out of 14 in the high jump (1.69 meters) and 13^th out of 15 in the shot put (8.20 meters). The school-record holder in the 60-meter hurdles, he placed sixth out of 14 with a time of 9.16 seconds. He ran the 1,000 meters for the first time in his career and placed second out of 12 entrants with a time of 2.50.23. He capped the event by placing 13^th out of 15 in the pole vault with a leap of 2.95 meters. Matthews accumulated 4,110 points over the seven events and placed fifth out of 14 entrants.

The 4,110 points ranked as the fifth highest total for the heptathlon in the region.

It marks the first indoor track & field USTFCCCA all-region honor for Matthews. He becomes just the second student-athlete from Daemen to earn USTFCCCA all-region honors for indoor track & field, joining Kevin Roginson who earned the honor in the 5,000 meters in 2016-17.

The Daemen men's track & field team took part in six meets during the 2022-23 indoor season and capped the year with a sixth place finish at the 2023 East Coast Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships held tonight at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island, N.Y.

Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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