May. 1, 2005

New Haven, Conn. - Freshman Shaun Kippins jumped to two personal bests and was part of a second-place relay team to lead the Marist men's track team Sunday at the Yale Springtime Invitational.

Kippins started the day by being part of the 400-meter relay team that was runner-up in a time of 43.95 seconds. That time was more than a half-second faster than the relay team's performance Friday at the Penn Relays. Senior captain Adam Pakiela, sophomore Matt Williams and junior Rob DeAngelo ran on the relay with Kippins.

Kippins then placed seventh in the long jump with a best distance of 6.41 meters (21 feet, 0.5 inches). He followed that up with an outstanding series of triple jumps, culminating with a sixth-place distance of 13.55 meters (44 feet, 5.5 inches), breaking a four-year old school record in that event by .08 meters.

Other personal-best performances were recorded by two of the team's distance runners. Senior Steve Hicks placed eighth in the 1,500-meter run in 4:07.25, knocking one second off his previous best. Just three days earlier, Hicks ran to a personal-best time in the 5,000 meters at Penn Relays. Sophomore Matt Syzmaszek was ninth in the 5,000-meter run in 15:52.55, bettering his previous mark by three seconds. Senior captain Sean Hopkins was seventh in the 5,000 with a season's best time of 15:49.94.

Other top performers Sunday were Pakiela, who ran to a personal-best time in the 200 meters (23.36 seconds) and sophomore Matt Williams, who finished 10th in the 100-meter dash in 11.56 seconds.

The Red Foxes are back in action next weekend at the MAAC Championships at Rider.