HOUGHTON, NY – The Alfred University men's track & field team had a bevy of Top-10 finishes as the Saxons opened up the 2021-22 season at the annual Houghton College December Classic on Friday evening.
 
The Saxons were led by Neil Peters (The Bronx, NY/DeWitt Clinton) who made the Top-10 in all four of his events on the day. He started his evening with a second place finish in the 60-meter dash, making it the top finish of the day for AU. He qualified for the finals with a time of 7.27 and ran a 7.24 in the deciding heat. Next, Peters took 10^th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.35 and immediately followed with a ninth place finish in the long jump with a vault of 6.31m.
 
Peters rounded out his evening as he teamed with John Wendt (Lewiston, NY/Lewiston-Porter), Hans Goodnow (Phoenix, NY/John C. Birdlebough) and Papa Dioum (New York, NY/Frederick Douglas Academy) in the 4x200-meter relay, racing to a time of 1:38.72, taking fifth place and just narrowly falling short of the fourth place time by Buffalo State College and its 1:38.63.
 
"It was such a wonderful feeling to be back out competing as a team and everyone was so excited for the opportunity to compete in such a large meet with so many talented teams," Head Coach Dr. Angie Taylor said. "We had so many great performances on the track with great outcomes. Even those that may not have finished as high as others still had great season-opening times and it gives me a lot of hope going forward and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish as we have one more meet before winter break."
 
Chris Mayo (Wolcott, NY/North Rose-Wolcott) had the next top result of the season-opener with a time of 2:08.81 in the 800-meter run, earning him fourth place. Kalum Holbrook (Atlanta, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) got the next highlight in his first collegiate meet, finishing sixth in the triple jump with a hop-skip-jump of 11.80m.
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Jackson Trimboli (Arkport, NY/Arkport Central), Connor Kerr (Tioga, PA/Williamson), Steven Morrow (Dryden, NY/Dryden) and George Mecca (Derby, NY/Eden) also claimed a sixth place of their own with a time of 3:41.81. Morrow had a seventh place finish earlier in the evening with a time of 1:27.45 in the 600-meter run, christening his first collegiate meet as well.
 
Goodnow took eighth in the pole vault with a height of 3.45m, Mecca ran a 2:12.89 in the 800-meter run for ninth place and Kenneth Berlin (Erie, PA/Harbor Creek) rounded out the Top-10 finishes for the Saxons with a toss of 10.64m in the weight throw.

The Saxons will next travel to a two-day invitational at Utica College on Saturday, December 11 and ending on Sunday, December 12.