NEW YORK – Competing one final time before next weekend's 2014 America East Indoor Championships, the UMBC track and field team claimed five event victories while competing at the Rider/Lafayette Winter Games, Friday night at the Armory.
Junior Thor Serafenas (Olney, Md./Good Counsel/Clemson) and senior Ray Stinsman (Mt. Laurel, N.J./Lenape) went one-two in the weight throw with both posting career-bests. Serafenas won the competition with a heave of 18.47m (60'7.25") and moved up to third in the UMBC record book while Stinsman climbed up to seventh with a toss of 16.06m (52'8.25"). Serafenas also finished third in the shot put in New York (14.56m; 49'9.25").
In the women's throwing events, sophomore Nneoma Edokobi (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) won the shot put (12.53; 41'1.5"), while claiming fifth in the weight throw (13.69;44'11").
Senior Andrew Smith (Chadds Ford, Pa./Garnet Valley) led a trio of Retrievers in the top-ten while taking to top honor in the 800m run. Smith, the school record holder in the event, crossed the line at 1:50.22, with junior Charles Bolinger (Bowie, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt) setting a personal-best of 1:54.36 in third place, and senior Jake Albino (Hampton, N.Y./Minisink Valley) taking seventh (1:57.72).
After setting a personal-best in the 400m event last week at the same facility, freshman Erick Soetje (Clarksburg, Md.) took the top spot in the 500m race on Friday with a personal-best time. Soetje bested the field by clocking in at 1:05.26, the seventh-fastest time in program history.
The women's 4x400m relay team also slotted itself first against the competition at the Armory. Junior Kalane' Abbey (Laurel, Md./Laurel), freshman Mercedes Tillman (Waldorf, Md./North Point), sophomore Marie Yuille (Bowie, Md.), and junior Briana Young (Bowie, Md./Elizabeth Seton) constructed a time of 3:49.52 to earn first place.
In addition, Tillman and Yuille set personal-best in their respective individual events. Tillman tied for fifth in the 60m dash with a time of 7.91 to move up to eighth in the UMBC record book. Yuille, meanwhile, finished fifth in the 400m dash with a top personal time of 58.42.
Freshman Madeline Entwistle (Potomac, Md.) set a new personal record in the 60m hurdles, finishing with a time of 9.22, the seventh-best time for a UMBC athlete, to place fourth. Junior Paulette Fogle (Washington, D.C./Bishop McNamara) finished seventh in the event.
In the jumps, freshman Abigale Slonski (Griswold, Conn./Griswold) and sophomore Justin Glaze (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) each earned two two-ten finishes. Slonski equaled her career-best in the long jump (5.13m; 16'10") to finish eight while taking seventh in the triple jump. Glaze finished sixth in both events, setting a career-best in the long jump (6.73m; 22'1").
UMBC now enters the championship portion of its schedule and will once again head to New York next weekend to compete at the America East Championships at the Armory.
