Men’s Indoor Track & Field Leads After Day One of UAA Championships

Mar. 7 – (CLEVELAND, Ohio) – The Carnegie Mellon University men’s indoor track & field team participated in the first day of the 2008 University Athletic Association Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Case Western Reserve University. The Tartans lead after Day One with 43 points and Washington University is in second with 31 points.

The Tartans had two first place finishes (10 points apiece) during the first day of competition. Senior Mike Reggie (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) won the weight throw with an impressive season best throw of 15.24 meters. The men’s distance medley relay team also took first and consisted of Nate Bussiere (Canton, Conn.) in the 1200 meters, freshman Casey Piper (Butler, Pa.) in the 400 meters, senior Scott Fortune (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) in the 800 meters, and junior Brian Harvey (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) finishing in the mile. The quartet finished in 10:14.35, four seconds ahead of second place.

Senior Eric Tang (Alhambra, Calif./Dunn School) had a strong first day of competition, placing second in the long jump with a huge season best jump of 6.78 meters in addition to running the fastest 55 meter dash time (6.51 seconds) in the preliminaries. Freshman Essien Ohues (Alpharetta, Ga./Chaptahoochee) placed third in the high jump (1.93 m) and sophomore James Hulley (Northampton, Mass.) finished fourth in the weight throw (personal best of 14.00 m).

Fortune won the preliminaries of the 800 meter dash (1:58.16) and sophomore Dan Burrows (Rochester, N.Y./Hilton) placed second with a personal record time of 1:59.19. Sophomore Dario Donatelli (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) placed fourth in the 5000 meters thanks to a season best time of 15:05.93 and junior Breck Fresen (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) ran a 15:14.02 (sixth).

Sophomore Chris Bogie (Darien, Conn.) sneaked in to the finals of the 400 meter dash as he placed sixth in the preliminaries with a season best time of 51.25 seconds. Freshman Chris Luther (Riverview, Fla.) placed fifth in the preliminaries of the 55 meter dash with a personal best time of 8.11 seconds.

The Tartans will aim to maintain their lead tomorrow during the final day of the 2008 UAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Since 2002 the Tartans have not placed higher than second overall (2005,2006) at the event.