MANHATTAN, NY – Twenty-nine members of the Houghton track & field men's and women's teams traveled to the historic facility The Armory to compete in the NYU DIII Invitational. Interestingly enough, there were several NCAA Division I and II institutions present, amongst many Division III programs. The Houghton crew faired quite well with several top 5 finishes on the day. In normal fashion, Tori Brewster won the 60m in 7.64, showing brilliant consistency. She remains #7 in all of NCAA Division III with a mark of 7.63. Evan Kurtz and Kealon Knight dualed to a 2^nd and 3^rd place finish in the 60m. Knight bested Kurtz in the prelim, with a personal best time of 7.07. Kurtz, then, edged out Knight in the final. Knight ran another personal best of 7.06 in the final. Amos Bixler unleashed a furious kick to nearly win the mile in a new program record of 4:17.53. Just under a second out of 1^st place. Alexa Belanger added 1 centimeter to her personal best to take 2^nd in the High Jump, and tie the program record! She currently sits tied for #23 in NCAA Division III. Emberlynn Nolt continued her surging freshman campaign to take 4^th in the 3,000m. She ran a time of 10:44.29, good for #6 in program history. The men's 800m crew of Henry Sardina, James Eustace, Aidan Fish, and Amos Bixler all went under 2:00. This was historic, as Houghton has never had more than two men under 2:00 in an indoor season. Sardina and Eustace ran a tactically brilliant race, as Fish stuck right behind them. Their times were 1:58.18, 1:59.28, and 1:59.43. Bixler came back after his mile run, to go 1:59.92 in a great double. Finally, Brewster came back in the afternoon in the 200m to run a personal best and new program record of 25.60! She took 2^nd in the event.

"We are picky when we go on trips like this. We want everyone to go, thrive, and feel the energy of being at a big time meet in a big time facility.  We saw many people really have big breakthroughs, and I think the athletes felt like it was a special opportunity. A funny story is from the men's 3,000 meter run. Sam Lyon was feeling so good that I was sure he thought his 14^th lap was his last. He was flying. I was prepared to signal to him on the straight away that he had another to go. Turns out he knew that, and was just feeling amazing to win his heat. That was fun to watch. We still have some work to do before championship season. So we have some good planning, and organization ahead, this week, to prepare for that," said Coach Hager after the meet.

The Highlanders are back in action at the Kerr-Pegula Fieldhouse on Saturday, 2/22 for the Last Chance Conference Qualifier Invitational.