UTICA, N.Y. - The Oneonta men's track & field team opened the 2025-26 indoor season at Saturday's Utica Holiday Classic. The Red Dragons set multiple personal records and had four athletes register AARTFC-qualifying marks.
Fifth-year Gabe Burns (Riverhead, NY/Riverhead) got Oneonta moving with a first-place and AARTFC qualifying time of 15:15.22 in the 5,000-meter race.
Junior Kejhaune Lester () won the 60-meter prelims at 6.92 and set a personal best of 6.91 to take first in the finals. As of today, his time ranks seventh across all of Division III. Additionally, sophomore Alex Darrigo (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) and senior Cam Spears (Bronx, NY/Monroe Woodbury) reached the finals after running 7.15 and 7.18, respectively. Darrigo ran a personal-best 7.08 in the finals to place third.
Senior Tariq Earl (Centereach, NY/Centereach) finished ninth in the 60-meter hurdle finals at 8.86, while junior Jamar Matthew () won his heat to reach the finals at 8.99. Matthew crossed with a personal best of 8.68 to place third in the finals.
Spears continued with an eighth-place finish in the 400-meter at 51.61, while freshman Jacob Prentice () took 11th at 52.27. Spears went sub-23 with an indoor personal best of 22.90 to take sixth in the 200-meter. Freshman Haywood Edwards () was 11th at 23.13.
Junior Noah Pickard (Batavia, NY/Batavia) dropped over 30 seconds in the 3,000-meter to record a personal best of 9:18.69 for a fifth-place finish. Freshman Alexander Wheeler () took seventh at 9:30.50. Freshman Tyler Masiello (Pleasantville, NY/Westlake) was tenth (9:37.03), freshman Nick Petro (Peru, NY/Peru) placed 11th (9:39.36), and freshman Xander Kunz (Elbridge, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) crossed 12th (9:41.26).
Moving into the field events, senior Sawyer Eckberg (Maryland, NY/Laurens-Milford) earned eighth in the weight throw at 15.25 meters. Junior Elijah Cruz (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush Central) set a personal best mark of 15.05 meters to place tenth. Eckberg grabbed 13th in the shot put at 12.63 meters. Freshman Jacob Blencowe () threw 12.55 meters in his collegiate debut for 14th, while senior Justin Baldwin (Cato, NY/Cato-Meridian) placed 15th at 12.40 meters.
Junior Isaiah Slater (Brooklyn, NY/John F. Kennedy) won the long jump with a career-best mark of 7.22 meters that ranks second in Division III. Sophomore Gabriel Schoonmaker (/) placed 11th with a personal best of 6.38 meters.
Senior Josh Jerome (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) set a personal record of 13.96 meters to take third in the triple jump. Slater cleared 13.21 meters for ninth overall. Senior Jesse James (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond's) set a personal record of 1.78 meters in the high jump for tenth place.
Oneonta next competes at the Cornell Southern Tier Invite on Sat. Jan. 10
