For the fifth time this year, junior long jumper Roy Richards won the title in the long jump. His latest victory, on Saturday, came at the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletics Association Championships in Boston, Mass.
Richards' win was his second in as many weeks after he took the long jump crown at the Mid-American Conference Championship last weekend. With a provisional slot in the NCAA Tournament next week already in hand, Richards' proved himself to be the best long jumper on the east coast.
His leap of 24 feet, 5 inches at Boston University gave Richards the title in the event. The leap was a foot more than the second-place jump of Marquis Allen from Rutgers.
"Roy has been a competitor all season long," said head coach Perry Jenkins. "He has proved to be one of the best, not only in the MAC, but on the whole East Coast."
Also for the men, on day two of the event, junior Dan McKenna placed sixth in a gutsy race in the one-mile run. McKenna finished the race at 4:10.74 with the bottom of his foot calloused and torn up.
"I'd love to have a lot of our athletes to be like Dan McKenna," Jenkins said. "He's a warrior. If he has one leg to run on, he's going to run."
McKenna's performance was not enough to catch Army's John Mickowski. Mickowski took first in the event with a time of 4:08.43.
Junior Rayshon Higgins was unable to follow up on last week's MAC title as he placed eighth in the triple jump. Higgins' jump of 47 feet, 6 inches was his only legal jump in the event, and was short of Cornell's Muhamma Halim's first-place jump of 51 feet, 7 inches.
Richards, McKenna and Higgins all earned All-East honors with eighth-place-or-better finishes.
Falling short of garnering the regional honor was junior thrower George Fetchko. Fetchko's toss of 53 feet, 7 inches in the shot put was enough for ninth place. Milan Jotanovic of Manhattan won the event with his throw of 63 feet, 8 inches.
The women's squad also competed at the two-day Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship Saturday and Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center at Northeastern University.
The highlight of the meet came on day two of the event when the women's distance medley relay team broke its own school record set earlier this season. Eclipsing their old mark by over five seconds, the team of senior Kate Kohout, junior Stacy Downer, freshman Mary Veith and senior Jen Jezorski finished sixth overall with a time of 11:33.11. The old mark was 11:38.35.
Altering the lineup may have been the key for the foursome.
"We switched the order," said head coach Vicki Mitchell. "I moved Kate Kohout and Mary Veith. Stacey Downer ran strong, Mary had another great race and Jen ran a personal best in the anchor leg. We beat good teams like Duke and Bucknell. That meant a lot to us."
Brown University won the medley relay event finishing first overall at a scorching 11:15.90. The winning squad from Brown consisted of Naja Ferjan, Akilah King, Kelly Powell and Anna Willard.
After a second-place finish at last week's MAC Championship, junior Jessica Lister placed sixth in the pole vault for the women. Lister's final vault was 12 feet, 3 inches for the event.
"Jessica had a couple of really aggressive approaches," Mitchell said. "This was her first really successful finish at the ECACs."
Lister gained All-East honors, as did the members of the medley relay team.
The men finished 21st of 51 in team scoring at the IC4A Championship with 14 points. Penn State totaled 71 points for first place. The women finished 32nd of 51 teams with a total of six points at the ECAC Championship. Georgetown finished first with 65 points.
Richards will look to bring a national championship to Buffalo as he competes in the NCAA Championship March 9-10 in Fayetteville, Ariz.
