UTICA, N.Y. – The Union College men's indoor track and field team had a successful afternoon at the non-scoring Utica Blue & Orange Invitational, hosted by Utica University at the Hutton Sports and Recreation Center on Saturday.
 
As a team, Union finished the day with three new Liberty League Championship qualifications, five personal bests and 13 season bests.
 
Junior Nate Okwaning earned a fourth-place finish out of 76 runners in the prelims of the 60-meter dash, crossing the line in 7.09 seconds to book a spot in the finals. He then ran a 7.09 again in the finals to finish in fourth place overall. The junior also placed 13th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.04 seconds, just 11 hundredths of a second ahead of classmate Aaron Binion, who qualified for the conference championships with a career-best mark of 23.15 seconds.
 
Junior Michael Fitzmaurice posted the best 800-meter time of his career, breaking two minutes for the first time by placing sixth in 1:59.83, earning a spot at the conference championships in the process. Classmate Will Bonnette also finished in a career-best 2:02.69 to place 13th.
 
Sophomore Liam Fitzgibbon paced the Garnet Chargers in the mile, crossing the line in 4:26.33 to place ninth overall and book his spot at Liberty Leagues.
 
Union had several good results in the 3,000 meters, led by first-year Cole Lewek with a season-best 9:14.36 finish that placed him in the top 10. Classmate Greg Keane finished just outside the top 10 in 9:22.19.
 
In the field events, senior Jason Bois placed 12th in the 60-meter hurdles with a finish of 8.89 seconds and classmate Mason Lang nabbed 15th with a mark of 13.13 meters in the shot put.
 
Qualified student-athletes will return to the track next Saturday at the NYU D-III Invitational.