McKee Notches Pole Vault Victory for Second Consecutive Week to Lead Men’s Track & Field at Riverhawk Invitational

BOSTON, Mass. – First-year Jaden McKee (Riverside, Calif.) won the pole vault for the second consecutive week as the MIT men's track & field team competed at the Riverhawk Invitational hosted by UMass Lowell on Friday at The TRACK at New Balance.

THE BASICS:
No Team Score

HOW IT HAPPENED – TRACK EVENTS:

60 Meter Hurdles: Senior Walter Truitt (Houston, Texas) was the lone Division III competitor to qualify for the final and finished fifth in the event with a time of 8.28 seconds.
400 Meter Dash: Junior Kristian Praizner (Folsom, Pa.) clocked a time of 49.34 seconds and finished in 15^th place overall, the highest among all Division III finishers.
800 Meter Run: Senior Ziyad Hassan (Ashburn, Va.) posted a second-place finish with a time of 1:52.60 and sophomore Jaxon Miller (Goshen, Ind.) placed 10^th in 1:55.66.
One Mile Run: A time of 4:14.79 gave senior Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) a 17^th place finish, which was the best among all Division III competitors.
3,000 Meter Run: Sophomore Nate Martinez (Thompson's Station, Tenn.) was the top Division III finisher in the event and ran a personal-best time of 8:39.39.
4x400 Relay: The Engineers' 4x400 relay team of sophomores Connor Sterling (New Milford, Conn.) and Davis Lee (Mountain Brook, Ala.), junior Jared Steins (Chino Hills, Calif.) and first-year Wyatt Vick (Chillicothe, Ohio) took sixth place with a time of 3:22.91.

HOW IT HAPPENED – FIELD EVENTS:

Pole Vault: McKee captured first place with a mark of 4.88m (16' 0").
Weight Throw: Sophomore Justin Buonato (Horsham, Pa.) registered a personal-best mark of 15.71m (51' 6 1/2") as a 17^th place finish overall made him the highest Division III finisher.
High Jump: Junior Jackson Bliey (Talleyville, Del.) and sophomore Anthony Meng (Scottsdale, Ariz.) notched top five finishes as Bliey took second with a personal-best mark of 2.15m (7' 1/2") while Meng finished fourth at 2.09m (6' 7").
Triple Jump: Junior Sean Huckleberry (San Francisco, Calif.) notched a sixth-place finish with a mark of 13.77m (45' 2 1/4") and was one of just two Division III competitors in the event along with teammate, graduate student Fischer James Espiritu Argosino (Parker, Colo.), who was 17^th at 12.14m (39' 10").

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Praizner's 400-meter time of 49.34 seconds represents the second-best clip in the East Region thus far.
Hassan's time of 1:52.60 currently ranks as the top time nationally in the 800 meters, just edging out Loras' Joe Franke who ran a 1:52.61 on Dec. 6, 2024, while Miller ranks 11^th nationally at 1:55.66.
Arroyo's mile time of 4:14.79 places him second in the East Region.
The time of 8:39.39 surpasses Martinez's previous personal-best of 8:57.90 by more than 18 seconds.
The 4x400 relay time of 3.22.91 marks the best in the East Region this winter and sits seventh nationally.
In the pole vault, McKee's mark set a new personal-best and ranks eighth in all of Division III this winter.
Bliey eclipsed his previous personal-best of 2.14m in the high jump. His new mark of 2.15 leads the nation by three centimeters and is one centimeter higher than the height at which he won the title at 2024 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship.

UP NEXT:

The Engineers are back in action on Saturday, February 1 for the John Thomas Terrier Classic that will be hosted by Boston University beginning at 10:00 AM.

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