HOUGHTON, N.Y. — The Daemen men's track and field team kicked off its indoor season at the Houghton December Classic on Friday. 

The Wildcats had two first-place finishes and one third-place result with CJ Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) and Ethan Keating (Wooster, Ohio) leading the way. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Keating earned gold in the 5,000 meters with a personal-best time of 15:33.16, ranking third in program history. Freshman Simon Evans (Galway, N.Y.) started his collegiate track career strong, placing sixth in the event after crossing the finish line in 16:06.05, ranking ninth in the program record books. 
• In the 60-meter hurdles, Devon Mendez (Hartford, Conn.) placed seventh in the final with a time of 9.10 seconds. He qualified with a preliminary time of 8.97 seconds. 
• Johnson won the mile race, finishing in 4:30.35. It marked a PR for the junior and broke the program record that he previously held by just over a second. Ibrahim Hakizimana (Rochester, N.Y.) placed 17th in the event with a PR time of 4:53.01. 
• In the 3,000 meters, Johnson had another strong performance, taking third after posting a time of 9:15.08. 
• Freshman Brendan Smukall placed 10th in the 600 meters, clocking in at 1:38.48. 
• Daemen's 4x400 team of Hakizimana, Smukall, Johnson, and Keating came in 7th place with a time of 3:47.82. 
• Off the track, junior Owen Dernbach finished 20th in the long jump with a final leap of 5.92 meters. 

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will have some time off before resuming their indoor season at the Brockport Invitational on Jan. 17. 

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Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 18 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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