HOUGHTON, NY – The Highlander Track & Field teams competed at home to 'bust the rust' to start the season. Competing teams included conference rivals St. John Fisher and Alfred University, as well as RIT, PSU Behrend, Alfred State, and Mansfield. The Houghton teams came away from 38 personal best (PR) performances, and some near school records.
 
From Coach Hager, "The cool thing about this meet is it's fresh competition for most people. The XC teams haven't competed in over a month, and the pure track & field athletes for 7 months. Tonight, in particular, they seemed hungry to prove something. I told them before we started that we aren't the teams we used to be. We have some high capabilities, and they set bar high to start the season."
 
For the men, some of the distance athletes kept training after XC in order to get some PRs and high conference marks. They did just that as Tyler Deuschle paced the group for the win, Dylan Beckhorn took 2^nd place, John Vernick 4^th , and Dillon Bell 5^th. Beckhorn, Vernick, and Bell saw big personal bests in 16:07, 16:16, and 16:17. Jerome Houston had a .04 PR in the 60m, and almost set a new school record, running 7.31. Nathaniel Zedomi turned in new indoor personal best of 51.95, and 3rd place in the 400m. Another near school record came when Dan Burdo outkicked an unattached athlete to win the 600m in 1:25.08, just .2 off the school record.
 
The women's distance athletes also set high goals for the 5k on Friday. With Shelby Langlois, Emily Blosdale, and Amanda Burrichter pacing the group, seniors Anna Hardiman and Abigail Naylor posted big PR's of 20:18, and 20:40 to take 5^th and 7^th in the race. Senior Gwen Stokes had another big night as she was runner-up in the High Jump in a Regional qualifying mark, and took 2^nd in the 800m. Other highlights included freshman Ali Wisniewski taking 3^rd in the 60HH, and Ashley Liddiard winning the Weight Throw, in a new PR.
 
The Highlander T&F teams will compete next at home on 1/24/2020 at the Highlander Invitational.