NEW YORK, NY - The Iona College men's indoor track & field team took home both gold medals handed out in the track events Saturday evening at the 2022 MAAC Championships at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York City.  Junior Jamie Dee set a MAAC record in the 5,000-meter event and the distance medley relay quartet cruised to a first-place finish to pace the Gaels on the first night of the event.  Among the 17 student-athletes earning gold medals Saturday on both the men's and women's sides, 10 wore Maroon & Gold.

5000-METER RUN

Junior Jamie Dee pulled away from the pack late to earn his first MAAC Track Championship. Dee shattered the MAAC Championship's 5k indoor standard with his time of 14:02.30. The previous mark of 14:07.39 was set in 2020 by Monmouth's Kyle Mueller.
 
Earning silver was sophomore Joshua DeSouza (14:18.89) finishing more than 16 seconds behind his teammate. He held a steady margin on the third-place finisher, crossing nearly eight seconds ahead of Marist's Ramsey Little.

DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY

The Gaels held the lead in all three baton passes and cruised to a four second win with a gold medal time of 10:02.13. Junior Mael Gouyette gave Iona an advantage in the 1,200-meter opening leg. Sophomore John Conroy briefly conceded the lead but finished his leg strong and passed the baton to sophomore Nick Soldevere. Soldevere maintained the lead and senior Ehab El-Sandali cruised in the anchor leg.
 
The Iona quartet kept the MAAC Indoor DMR title in New Rochelle for the second straight event.

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS

60-METER DASH

Senior Prince Forson (6.94) and freshman Jordan Providence (6.94) qualified for tomorrow's 60m final, earning the top two times and each finishing first in their heat.

200-METER DASH

Senior Kevin Fullerton (22.08) and sophomore Jadyn Tabois (22.19) earned qualifying times in the 200m event, the fourth and seventh fastest times in the preliminary round. Fullerton finished first in his heat while Tabois was second.

800-METER RUN

Prior to their DMR victory, Soldevere (1:52.94) and Gouyette (1:53.30) advanced to the 800-meter finals with the second and third fastest times in the preliminary heats. Each on their heat to automatically qualify. Monmouth's Stone Caraccio ran the fastest time (1:52.02) in the first heat of the night.

MILE RUN

El-Sandali and freshman Sinofsky opened the MAAC Track & Field Championships with finals qualifying times in the mile. El-Sandali blazed the fastest time in the event, posting a personal best time of 4:04.65. Running virtually alone in his heat, he won by nearly 11 seconds. He holds the top seed in tomorrow's final by more than 10 seconds.
 
Sinofsky's time of 4:17.57 was third in El-Sandali's heat which produced four of the 10 finalists.  He was just .04 behind the second-place finisher in the heat.

IONA COMPETITORS

5k: Jamie Dee, 1st, 14:02.30, Joshua DeSouza, 2nd, 14:18.89, TJ Harkins, 18th, 15:16.34. Long Jump: Rephael Griffith, 13th, 5.71m. 60 prelim: Prince Forson, 1st, 6.94, Jordan Providence, 2nd, 6.96, Kevin Fullerton, 9th, 7.10, Jeremy Scott, 12th, 7.18, Rephael Griffith, 16th, 7.67. 200 prelim: Kevin Fullerton, 4th, 22.08, Jadyn Tabois, 7th, 22.19, Jordan Providence, 12th, 22.68, Prince Forson, 14th, 22.72, Jeremy Scott, 16th, 23.02. 400 prelim: Jadyn Tabois, 9th, 50.25. 800 prelim: Nick Soldevere, 2nd, 1:52.94, Mael Gouyette, 3rd, 1:53.30, Dante Ubriaco, 28th, 2:07.99. Mile prelim: Ehab El-Sandali, 1st, 4:04.65, Nick Sinofsky, 9th, 4:17.57, Campbell Lee, 13th, 4:19.84, Nick Hunziker, 15th, 4:20.44. >DMR: Mael Gouyette, John Conroy, Nick Soldevere, Ehab El-Sandali, 1st, 10:02.13.

UP NEXT

Action continues tomorrow night at the Armory beginning at 5 p.m.  Check out the event preview for race times for Gael competitors.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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