Jan. 18, 2015 Men's Results
Women's Results
NEW YORK, N.Y. - In a meet that took 12 hours to complete in the Big Apple on Friday, several members of the UMES track team proved to be needles in the proverbial haystack at the Gotham Cup in Manhattan. One athlete came away with a first place finish while another earned top five spots and a few more reached the finals of their events out of a field of 75 or more preliminary runners.
Though he did not have his best throw of the season, senior Dillon Simon (Roseau, Dominica) still beat out 58 other hurlers with his 18.89 meter toss to earn first place. This is the third victory for Simon in the shot put this season. Going beyond Simon, UMES' men's field team proved to be consistently successful in nearly every event at the Gotham Cup. Sophomore Jared Kerr (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) narrowly missed his personal best in the long jump, but his mark of 7.42 meters was still good for second place, and Senior Devin Wynn (Baltimore, Md.) secured a fourth place finish in the triple jump with a 14.16 meter mark.
Sophomore Khalil Rmidi Kinini (Malaga, Spain) nearly reset his own record in the mile run at the meet with a time of 4:13.81 in a third place effort. He set the new school record earlier this month at 4:13.04. One other men's track event finished in the top ten for the Hawks, as the men's distance medley time of 10:26.16 earned third place as well. And while he finished 11th overall in the field, sophomore Michael Johnson (Ramstein AFB, Germany) set a personal best in the 400 meter with his time of 49.49 seconds.
On the Lady Hawks side, freshman Loundy Desire (Queens Village, N.Y.) finished 14th in a field of over 100 competitors with a personal best time of 7.77 seconds in the 60 meter dash. Sophomore Shelasia Leitch (Newark, N.J.) also earned high marks for earning a spot in the 60 meter hurdles finals, ultimately finishing 15th in the finals with a 8.94 second time after taking 14th place in a preliminary round that featured 79 athletes. UMES also scored well in the women's 4x800 meter relay by finishing third in a field of 17 teams with their time of 9:16.54.
In the field events, sophomore Shauntel Lucius (Newark, N.J.) finished tied for eighth in the triple jump with an 11.81 meter mark, and fellow sophomore Alexis Dailey (Huntingtown, Md.) also took home an eighth place spot with a personal best mark of 15.43 meters in the weight throw.
The team will head back to New York City over the next two weeks, starting with the Metro Team Challenge on January 24th.
