The Amherst men’s indoor track & field team placed tied for 21st overall at the two-day NEICAAA Championships hosted by Boston University this weekend.

Amherst had three runners featured in the 5,000-meter run including cross-country phenom Mohamed Hussein ’18, who finished an impressive first overall in the field of 30 talented runners with a time of 14:33.95. First-year and fellow cross-country teammate Tucker Meijer also had a stellar performance in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:27.08, a personal record for Meijer, while sophomore Justin Barry finished the event in 15:51.79.

In the 800-meter run, sophomore Chris Butko cruised to an impressive three-second personal record and finished 14th overall with a mark of 1:53.70.

Capping off the first day, the distance medley relay tandem of Jeff Seelaus ’16, Kristian Sogaard ’19, Brent Harrison ’16 and Kevin Connors ’17 finished eighth in the event with a time of 10:05.63.

On day two of the event, Amherst had two runners featured in the one-mile run including Connors, who finished 12th with a mark of 4:13.97, and Steven Lucey ’17, who placed 19th in the event with a time of 4:17.20. In their final relay of the meet, the purple and white’s 4x800-meter relay tandem of Jesse Fajnzylber ’17, Vernon Espinoza ’19, Sogaard and Harrison finished eighth overall in a time of 7:41.89.

“It was disappointing to see the team slip from the top ten on the second day, but I thought we all performed very well,” Espinoza said. “Hopefully, we can further improve next week and get some more qualifiers for the NCAA Championships.”
On Friday, March 4, the men’s team will compete at the Tufts Last Chance Invitational at Tufts in Medford, Massachusetts beginning at 5 p.m. Going into this final meet, the men are looking to qualify several more individual runners, jumpers and throwers for postseason action.