Competing on Day 1 of the conference championship meet Friday, Brown stretched the tape out at 15.93 meters (52 feet, 3 ¼ inches) with his third of six throws Friday inside the Brockport Special Events & Recreation Center. He came into the meet as the No. 2 seed.
Fredonia's next-best finish Friday came from junior Ethan Francis (Dunkirk, N.Y. / Dunkirk), who rallied for third in the 5,000 meters. He went immediately to the front and led after the first 600 meters, then settled into stride and dropped back to eighth in a tight pack of runners. He passed three runners in the next-to-last lap and was still picking up time when he crossed the wire in 15:16.78, just 2.7 seconds out of second.
Also Friday:
Senior triple jumper Rocky Caparro (Staten Island, N.Y. / Susan E. Wagner) was fourth with 13.82 meters (45 feet, 4 ¼ inches) and freshman Dan Sudyn (West Seneca, N.Y. / West Seneca West) was seventh with 13.71 meters (44 feet, 11 3/4 inches). Sudyn was 16th prior to the meet on the conference performance list.
Senior pole vaulter Justyn Haines (Albion, N.Y. / Albion) cleared 14 feet, 11 inches (4.55 meters) to finish tied for second.
In the heptathlon, senior Mitchel Paciga (Jeffersonville, N.Y. / Sullivan West) is sixth after four events. In a field of 13 starters, he was 11th in 60 meters, 11th in the long jump, sixth in the shot put, then shot up the standings with a high jump of 1.93 meters, first in the competition and worth 740 of his 2,296 points. The remaining events Saturday are the 60-meter hurdles, the pole vault, and the 1,000 meters.
Fredonia finished the day third in the team standings. Brockport leads with 59.5, Cortland has 40.5, the Blue Devils have 36, and Geneseo has 29.
Feldman qualifies first in 400, fourth in 200
Feldman was timed in 58.54 seconds, .73 of one second faster than the next fastest qualifier. The 400 final is scheduled for Saturday at 1:20 p.m. An hour later, at 2:20 p.m. Saturday, Feldman will also compete in the finals of the 200 meters -- in which she will be the fourth seed following her qualifying time of 26.27 seconds on Friday night.
In other Friday running events:
Starting quickly, then moving steadily throughout, junior Hannah Kurbs (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport) finished seventh in the 5,000 meters, good for two team points. She was third in the early going, dropped back as far as 10th where she ran tandem with senior Madison Courtney (Getzville, N.Y. / Williamsville South), then picked up three spots to finish in 18:56.80. Courtney finished ninth.
Fredonia finished seventh in the distance medley relay with a time of 13:32.53. The four runners were freshman Sarah Kurbs (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport), freshman Ariel Davis (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport), sophomore Kelly O'Hara (Webster, N.Y. / Webster Thomas), and junior Emily Maguire (Oakdale, N.Y. / Connetquot).
In Friday field events:
Mikayla Capestrani (Jamestown, N.Y. / Jamestown) was fourth and Kristen Sawyer (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport) seventh in the women's pole vault. Capestrani cleared 11 feet, 5 3/4 inches while Sawyer went over 10 feet, 11 3/4 inches. Both are seniors.
The Blue Devils also had two scorers in the triple jump, led by freshman Cassie Serafin (Cheektowaga, N.Y. / Depew) in third at 11.34 meters (37 feet, 2 ½ inches), up eight spots from where she stood on the pre-meet performance list. Finishing eighth was senior Sarah Couperus (Marion, N.Y. / Marion) in 10.78 meters (35 feet, 4 ½ inches).
In the shot put, senior Rachel Williams (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport) was fourth with a throw of 11.62 meters (38 feet, 1 ½ inches).
Fredonia is third after the first day of competition with 23 points behind Geneseo with 90 and Brockport with 79. Cortland is fouirth with 11.
Serafin 2nd in HJ, trio scores in wt. throw
At the top of the list was junior high jumper Nick Serafin (Depew, N.Y. / Depew), who finished second by clearing 6 feet, 4 1/2 inches (1.95 meters). He tied Brockport's Damian Fender at the height, who won the event by clearing it on his first try while Serafin cleared it on his second. Both men missed all three tries at 6 feet, 6 3/4 inches.
Three Fredonia men scored in the 35-pound weight throw, a haul of eight team points. Sophomore Jordan Toland (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport) was fifth at 14.93 meters (48 feet, 11 3/4 inches), freshman Jeremiah Chandler (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport) sixth atr 14.87 meters (48 feet, 9 1/2 inches), and senior Damone Brown(Haverstraw, N.Y. / North Rockland) eighth at 14.57 meters (47 feet, 9 3/4 inches). Brown, who won the shot put on Friday, earned a team-high 11 individual points, tied for fourth among all field athletes.
Also doing his work in field events was senior multi-athlete Mitchel Paciga (Jeffersonville, N.Y. / Sullivan West), who scored 4,014 points to finish fifth out of 13 men in the men's heptathlon. Paciga had the best pole vault (3.80 meters) during Saturday's competition after having the best high jump on Friday. He was also sixth in the 60-meter hurdles and 11th in the 1,000 meters on Saturday.
Fredonia had two individuals earn points in running events Saturday. Junior Ethan Francis (Dunkirk, N.Y./Dunkirk) was sixth in the 3,000 meters and senior Merlin Joseph Jr. (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton) seventh in the 800. Francis's time time of 8:49 made him the first non-Geneseo runner to cross the line. He was also Fredonia's top scorer among runners with nine points, 12th overall. Joseph's time in the 800 was 1:59.33.
The Blue Devils also earned sixth-place points in the 4-by-400 meter relay with the quartet of freshman Michael Salvati (Avon, N.Y./Avon), senior Mitch Loiacano (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport), freshman Marcus Torres (Goshen, N.Y./Goshen), and freshman Mike DeLand (Dunkirk, N.Y./Dunkirk). They edged out Western New York rival Buffalo State by six one-hundredths of a second and by three points in the team scoring. That earned Fredonia two more points in the season-long Battle By The Lake series with the Bengals.
Feldman, Couperus claim 2nds at SUNYAC's
Feldman was second in the 400 meters with a time of 58.24 seconds, then came back to finish fourth in the 200 meters in 26.35 seconds. She earned 13.25 points in the meet, including a quarter-point as part of Fredonia's eighth-place 4-by-400 relay, which was ninth best among all women runners.
The second-place finish by Couperus came in the high jump, where she tied two other women by clearing 5 feet, 1 3/4 inches (1.57). All three women had the same number of misses so officials split the point totals for the three places.
Wth their second-place finishes, Feldman and Couperus each earned the distinction of SUNYAC All-Conference Second Team.
Finishing just out of the all-conference mix was senior Rachel Williams (Lockport, N.Y. / Lockport), who was third in the 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 14.96 meters (49 feet, 1 inch). She earned six team points, giving her 11 in the meet, tied for fifth among all women field athletes. Williams was fourth Friday in the shot put.
In the Battle By The Lake competition, Buffalo State was eighth in the team standings so Fredonia earned two more points to add to its lead