UTICA, N.Y. – The Union College men's indoor track & field team got the 2025-26 season underway on Saturday afternoon at the Utica Holiday Classic, with a limited squad posting eight conference championship qualifiers and six personal bests at the non-scoring meet.
 
Junior Nate Okwaning represented Union in the sprints, taking 10th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.21 seconds and placing 21st in the 200-meter dash by finishing in 23.52 seconds. The junior qualified for the Liberty League Championships in both events. Classmate Kye Norcross also ran the 300 meters, finishing in 40.46 seconds.
 
Junior Jackson Klehr earned a top-10 finish in the 600 meters, crossing the line in 1:28.10 to place seventh out of 15 runners.
 
Union was well represented in the mile, with three runners in the top-seven. Sophomore Liam Fitzgibbon posted the best time of his career with a third-place run of 4:28.32, followed closely by first-year Alex Colangelo in 4:29.51 to place fourth. Junior Michael Fitzmaurice took seventh in the event with a time of 4:31.62, while first-year Leo Cerrai finished in 5:00.26 in his collegiate track debut.
 
First-year Cole Lewek led three runners in the 3,000 meters with an eighth-place finish, finishing in 9:33.72. He was followed by classmate Greg Keane in 9:41.83 and sophomore Liam Dougherty, who traversed the track in 9:55.68. Finishing up the distance events, junior Ben Pistiner registered a career-best time in the 5,000 meters, finishing in 16:19.40.
 
Senior Jason Bois took fourth place in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing in 8.81 seconds in the preliminaries and taking five-hundredths off with a 8.76-second run in the finals to earn himself a spot at the conference championships.
 
Union saw several conference qualifiers in the field events as well. Senior Mason Lang led four entries in the shot put with a career-best mark of 14.34 meters to place fourth overall, while classmate Nick Entner also qualified with an 11th-place mark of 12.68 meters. Lang also paced six entries in the weight throw, just missing a career-best with a mark of 13.60 meters, followed by Entner at 12.94 meters and senior Tony Cocchiaro with a career-best mark of 12.15 meters.
 
Sophomore Angelo Martello posted career-best marks in both events as well, tossing the shot put 9.24 meters and throwing the weight a career-best 10.12 meters. First-year Sam Sparks also made his collegiate debut in the events, recording marks of 10.90 meters in the shot put and 11.31 meters in the weight throw.
 
The Garnet Chargers will take a few weeks off for winter break before returning to action on January 10 at the Middlebury Snowflake Invitational.