KINGSTON, R.I. – Rhode Island won its third straight Atlantic 10 Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championship Sunday at Mackal Fieldhouse, finishing with four event gold medals and 175 total points. It’s the 14^th A-10 title overall for the Rams, and seventh crown in the last nine years.
 
In total, Rhody tallied 17 medal performances (top three) across 13 events, including a meet record-breaking weight throw of 20.49 meters by Johnathan Buchanan on Saturday. Stephen Cirella, who took silver in the shot put with a 16.62 meter performance and was also second in the Heptathlon with 5,160 points, was named A-10 Field Performer of the Year. Cirella finished in the top five of six of the seven heptathlon events, including winning the shot put (15.33 meters) and the pole vault (4.50 meters).
 
Rhode Island coach Trent Baltzell won his first A-10 Coach of the Year award. The Rams 175 points were well ahead of second-place George Mason, which led after the first day and finished the championship with 132.5 points. Davidson was third with 101 points, followed by VCU (99.5) and Saint Louis (68.5) in fourth and fifth place.
 
Three men’s records fell Sunday, including Saint Louis’ Toby Gillen, who ran the 3000 meters in 8:10.66, eight seconds faster than the A-10 and facility record of 8:18.27 set in 2011 by Andrew Benford of Richmond. He was named the Most Outstanding Track Performer for the second straight year.
 
Davidson set the other two records. The Wildcats’ Joe dosReis ran the mile in 4:06.76, beating the A-10 Championship meet record of 4:09.11 set in 2017 by Fordham’s Brian Cook. dosReis’ teammate Jayden Smith ran his 60 meter hurdles in a record time of 7,81 seconds, and then beat that in the finals with a 7.77 time. Both performances bested VCU’s Ian Davis, who set the league championship time of 7.94 in 2019. Smith also set the facility record, which was also 7.94 and was set in 2015 by Selwyn Maxwell of UConn.
 
Goerge Mason’s Micah Jones was named Rookie of the Year after winning the 60 meter dash with a 6.84 time. He also finished second in the long jump with a 7.25 meter result.
 
In addition to Buchanan, Rhody got top podium performances from three others. Jarrett Young won the 200 meters with a time of 21.77, Orion Joyner was the triple jump champion with a leap of 14.81 meters, and Christopher Tavarone won the shot put with a 17.33 meter performance.
 
Other gold medal performances included Davidson’s Owen Drometer, who won the 1000 meters with a 2:26.76. George Mason’s Jarett Flacker ran the 400 meters in 48.62 to win gold, and his teammate Colton Ocetnik was the pole vault champion with a 4.86 meter vault. Cason Gardner scored 5,340 points to win the heptathlon for Mason. Liam Rivard of La Salle was the 800 meter champion with a 1:54.44. Saint Joseph’s Patrick Fehm had a winning high jump of 2.08 meters VCU’s Lewis Freeman was the 500 meters champion, clocking in at 1:04.85. Lamar Davis of VCU won the long jump with a 7.38 meter leap.
 
Davidson won the 4x800 meter relay with a 7:38.76 and the DMR with a 9:50.07. The DMR time, which was completed Saturday, was also a league championship record. George Mason won the 4x400 meter relay with a 3:19.47.