From NYU Athletics
The New York University men's track & field team finished off its best performance ever at the University Athletics Association (UAA) Outdoor Championships. Held on Saturday and Sunday, April 23-24, at Washington University in St. Louis, the Violets finished a best-ever third with 126 points.
Host Washington won the seven-team competition with 161.5 points. Carnegie Mellon University placed second with 137 points.
Prior to this season, NYU had never finished higher than ffith.
The highlight of the championship for NYU was the 4x100m relay team of juniors Caleb Su, Budd Brown, senior Matthew Powers, and sophomore Malcolm Montilus breaking a 66-year-old team record. The foursome posted a winning time of 41.78, besting the old mark of 42.00 set in 1950.
The 4x400m relay team of Powers, Montilus, senior Max Avila, and Brown also claimed a UAA title with a season-best time of 3:16.52.
The sprinter duo of Powers and Brown refused to leave with only relay medals. Brown won the 200m dash in 21.66 with Powers finishing close behind in third with a time of 22.01. Montilus finished fifth (22.58) and Su took eighth (22.93).
Powers also went on to capture first place in the 100m dash in a blazing 10.93. Su took fifth in 11.18.
Brown returned to the track to secure second in the 400m dash by clocking a time of 47.93. Montilus finished eighth in 52.16.
"Those guys work incredibly hard and just kept producing," said Assistant Coach Erison Hurtault. "One of the records they broke was when NYU was Division I. So suffice to say, they earned that record. They ran amazing legs and truly did well in each of their races. It was a great day for sprinters."
The distance runners, not wanting to be left out, will also be returning home with medals. Sophomore Karn Setya placed second in the 5,000m run with a personal-best time of 15:30.29. Not far behind were fifth-place junor Jorge Maldonado and seventh-place sophomore Max Mudd in times of 15:33.38 and 15:36.80, respectively.
Avila secured third in the 800m in another personal-best performance (1:53.08) to earn a bronze medal.
"Setya, after a great cross country campaign, was absolutely huge today," Hurtault expressed. "Honestly, it was unexpected, but he really showed his toughness to push through that race. As for the other two guys, they keep pushing the envelope and putting out impressive times."
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Freshman William Lee claimed third in the high jump with a personal-best height of 1.94m.
- Junior Nick Karam finished ninth in the 1,500m (4:00.22). Junior Nathaniel Picard-Busky and senior Daniel Rieger trailed in 20th (4:18.55) and 25th place (4:31.14), respectively.
- Junior Nick Torsitano and freshman Daniel Sovich placed seventh (58.70) and eighth (1:01.37) in the 400m hurdles finals, respectively.