The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Durham, New Hampshire last weekend for the America East Championship. The men finished fifth out of nine teams, while the women placed fourth out of nine. In addition, several Bearcats took home All-Conference Honors, awards and top-five finishes throughout the meet.

“I felt that we performed really well,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “The team score wasn’t as high as we have been in the past, but the individuals we had performed really well.”

“We had some injuries, and we were missing some people, and the women’s team was very young, and that’s why the score wasn’t as high, but I couldn’t be happier with the actual performances of the people who were there,” he continued.

Graduate student Marcus Johnson finished first in the 400 hurdles for the second year in a row with a program record of 50.49. He also won silver in the triple jump with a distance of 48-0. Johnson finished the weekend being named the Men’s Most Outstanding Track Athlete, and his time for the 400 hurdles is currently ranked No. 11 in NCAA East Region rankings.

Sophomore Brennan Delany tallied 7,049 points in the decathlon, earning him gold and the Men’s Rookie of the Meet. Rounding out the men’s individual first-place finishes for the Bearcats was graduate student Josh Stone, who finished the 5,000 at 14:15.73.

“[Johnson] in the 400 hurdles PR’d by three or almost four tenths of a second, so that was fantastic,” Thompson said. “He’s one of the top runners in the country right down in the 400 hurdles, so that was great. Josh Stone in the 5K, he’s had some races this year where his body’s just not cooperating with him and he’s fighting through it, and he’s a really tough competitor, but it was really nice to see him finally have a race where he just felt really good.”

Continuing the Bearcats’ success was the men’s 4×400 team, who beat the odds and took home gold with a time of 3:10.88, courtesy of Johnson, graduate student Oliver Madariaga, senior Joe Cardascia, and junior Samson Joseph. Redshirt sophomore Brian Luciano won silver in the hammer throw with a distance of 210-6 and fourth in the discus with 152-10, while sophomore Putu Sutayasa recorded a distance of 23-4, placing third.

On the women’s side, senior Jennifer Mui brought home gold in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 10:17.89, currently No. 31 in the East Region. Taking silver in the 1,500 was freshman Anna Gansrow, finishing at 4:40.50.

Freshman Savanna Edwards took home bronze in the 400 hurdles at 1:01.94. Three Bearcats made the top five at the pole vault: junior Alyssa Armitage in second with a distance of 12-7.5; sophomore Tatum Norris in third with 12-1.5; and freshman Siena Jacobson in fifth with 11-1.75.

“I thought [Mui’s] performance was, again, fantastic,” Thompson said. “That was like a 15-second PR or somewhere around there, or 17 seconds, I think it was, which is a huge amount of time to take off in a 3,000-meter steeplechase. It’s a time that will probably qualify her for regionals, so on the women’s side, that was the performance of the meet.”

Three Bearcats on the women’s team finished fourth in their events: junior Sydney Leitner in the 10,000 at 36:56.10; Norris in the 400 dash at 55.44; and sophomore Dami Modupe in the 100 hurdles at 14.20.

Eight Bearcats were named to the Men’s All-Conference team: Stone, Johnson, Delany, Luciano, Sutayasa, Madariaga, Joseph and Cardascia. Mui, Armitage, Norris, Gansrow and Edwards were named to the Women’s All-Conference team.

The Bearcats are set to compete in the ECAC/IC4A Championships from Friday, May 16 to Sunday, May 18. The first event is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the George Mason Stadium in Fairfax, Virginia.