MAHWAH, N.J. – The Union College men's outdoor track & field team got its 2026 season underway this weekend at the Ramapo Invitational, held on Friday and Saturday at the Ramapo Athletic Center.
 
The Garnet Chargers started the year strong with six results qualifying for the Liberty League Championships and six top-10 finishes overall. As a team, Union finished in the top-half of the 25-team field with 23 points, good for 12th place.
 
On Friday's first day of competition, first-year Cole Lewek started off the weekend by posting Union's best result of the two-day event, placing second out of 11 competitors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:41.88. Classmate Greg Keane also earned a top-10 finish in the 5,000 meters on day one, crossing the line in 15:51.43 to place ninth, while junior Ben Pistiner posted the best 5,000 time of his career by finishing in 16:24.23.
 
The Garnet Chargers booked a pair of spots both at Liberty Leagues and in the finals of Saturday's 100-meter dash, with juniors Nate Okwaning and Aaron Binion finishing in 11.29 seconds (seventh) and 11.32 seconds (eighth), respectively.
 
Union earned two more spots at the conference championships in the 800 meters thanks to the efforts of sophomore Liam Fitzgibbon and junior Michael Fitzmaurice. Fitzgibbon matched the team's best finish of the day by earning the runner-up spot with a time of 1:56.53, followed by Fitzmaurice in 1:58.78 to place sixth out of 41 runners.
 
Junior Bretton Garrick also finished in the top-10 of the 1,500 meters with a personal-best time of 4:09.98, good for eighth place out of 61 runners.
 
In the field events, senior Mason Lang qualified for the conference championships in the hammer throw with a top distance of 37.77 meters, finishing just outside the top-10 in 11th. He was joined in the event by classmate Nick Entner, whose throw of 36.12 meters also was good to reach Liberty Leagues.
 
Union will return a full squad to competition next Saturday at Utica University's Pioneer Spring Invitational.