It was a weekend of firsts for the Binghamton University track and field team. At the America East championships, six school records were set on the men’s side leading to a second place finish, their best ever. In addition, the coaching staff, led by Mike Thompson, was named AE staff of the year.

Thompson said it was exciting, but was modest and gave credit to others saying that to be coach of the year, it’s a necessity to have a solid team. Senior captain Rory Quiller had more to say about his coaches’ award.

“It was long overdue,” Quiller said. “I know everybody would say that about their own coach, but it’s incredible what our team does compared to other schools. We’re not UCLA where we get tons of talent every year. They’re developing people.”

There were four school records set by freshmen at this championship, two by Cazal Arnett. Arnett ran his preliminary races Friday night in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter dash. In the preliminaries, he broke the record for each race. In the finals on Saturday, he then broke his own two records, running 21.72 in the 200 and 47.80 in the 400.

“[Arnett] is a very talented athlete,” said Thompson. “What impressed me most was his ability to stay composed in that type of environment.”

Freshman Casey Quaglia also broke a record belonging to himself. One week ago, Quaglia set the BU one mile record at 4:20.01. At the championships, he demolished it by running a 4:16.47, a 6 percent decrease. Quaglia took fifth in his event.

Christian Smith set a school record and placed first place in the 500-meter run with a time of 1:04.81. Thompson spoke about the excitement that this race caused as Smith flew from fourth to first with only 50 meters remaining in the race.

Quiller commented on all of the freshmen and their accomplishments.

“They really deserve it,” Quiller said. “They’re not brash, walking around like they know they’re good. They do their talking on the track.” With a slight tone of envy in his voice he added, “It’s going to be incredible for the next few years.”

It was not just the freshmen that ran well and broke records. Sophomore Chris Gaube broke a 25-year-old school record in the 3,000-meter run by eight seconds. Gaube, who missed much of the preseason due to injury said, “I’m running the best I possibly can.”

He had been trying to hit the qualifying standard for the IC4A meet, but in his two previous races he was two-tenths and three-tenths of a second short.

“I was pretty excited to finally hit the standard, I’m excited for the IC4A meet,” Gaube said.

Thompson said that if the Bearcats wanted to move up to second place in the conference, they would have to have a strong outing from their distance guys, especially in the 5,000-meter run, where New Hampshire had the top four in the pre-ranking. With Gaube leading the way, Binghamton managed to collect 11 points to New Hampshire’s 23, completing a terrific outing and helping the Bearcats achieve second place. Gaube placed third in the race, junior Adam Hill and freshman Adam Quinn also received points.

The other men’s first place finish came from Justin Halleck in the weight throw on the first day of events. Halleck placed third in the shot put on Saturday.

The second place finish by the men is the best in school history, but Quiller, who placed first in the pole vault Friday, said that he can foresee the team winning the conference in a few years. He said if the team had taken points in the hurdles, high jump and triple jump they possibly could have won.

“What a year to lose Adam Goldberg, he did all three,” Quiller said.

The women’s team did not have as successful of a meet. The highpoint was junior Marsha Fiesinger setting a school record in the pentathlon with a score of 3,165. The girls placed seventh, largely due to the absence of Kim Williams, who is injured, and Dayna Johnson, who was attending a funeral.

“With those girls, we would have been right in the middle of the pack, they’re good for 30 or 40 points,” said Thompson. He expects Johnson to be fully healed by the spring season but said they’re taking it one day at a time.

Quiller jumps at U.S. National meet: The day after the AE Championships, Rory Quiller jumped at the U.S. national meet and placed second with a personal record of 18-4 1/2. As this meet was not just for collegiate athletes, some of Quiller’s heroes were there and they put him in awe.

“I had to try and get over [the awe] pretty quick and compete,” said Quiller. After clearing the mark at 18-4 1/2, Quiller and the others attempted 18 8. This would have been a tremendous increase in Quiller’s capabilities but said that he got 90 percent of his body over the bar, but his chest hit it.

“I’m pretty confident for nationals. I look forward to it,” said Quiller on his great jump.

“He’s putting us on the map for a small Division I school,” Gaube said. “We’re all rooting for him.”