The Buffalo State men’s and women’s outdoor track and field team traveled to Hillsdale, Michigan over the weekend to face some tough competition as a final tune up before the SUNYAC Championships next week.

The 48th Annual “GINA” Relays at Hillsdale College featured some great performances on both the men’s and women’s side.

For the men, Cory Cox finished third in the long jump with a jump of 7.22 meters. That jump put him into the national ranks as the fifth-best jump in Division III track and field this season. Cox also finished seventh in the championship race of the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.71, which is ranked 15th nationally.

A few other top finishers for the men were Ray Richardson, Ron Major, David Littere, and Dajon Dixon. Richardson finished third in the triple jump with a jump of 14.21 meters, which ranks 17th best in the nation. Major finished 15th in the high jump, Littere finished 19th in the hammer throw, and Dajon Dixon finished third in the 100 meter hurdles.

On the women’s side, the 4×100 meter relay team consisting of Shuntone Pricher, Nia Holmes, Niasha Houpe, and Jazmine Herbert finished in eighth in a field including Division I opponents, registering a time of 48.44 which is ranked 26th in Division III.

Some other top finishers for the women were Jazlyn Porter, Seland Chaplin, and Treasure Glymph. Porter finished 17th in the long jump, Chaplin finished eighth in the high jump, and Glymph finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Coach Dustin Dimit went in to the weekend knowing how important the meet was.

“This meet was important,” he said. “Just to get some conference qualifiers and to compete against some really tough competition to help mentally prepare as well as physically prepare for the SUNYAC Championships.”

With the meet’s importance in mind, Dimit was pleased with how well the team performed.

“We were pretty happy with it,” he said. “I mean you always get a little greedy and want more but we were definitely happy to get some national qualifying performances and SUNYAC qualifying performances and we feel like it helped us prepare for next week.”

Cory Cox, who went into the meet with a few minor injuries, also echoed his coach’s sentiment.

“It was real important,” he said. “Because now I see that those little injuries weren’t that serious so I see how far I could push myself now and now I know what to fix.”

And Shuntone Pricher said she found some flaws in her performance in the meet that she knows she needs to correct before SUNYACs.

“Getting out of the block harder, aggressive,” she said. “And finishing my races going through my phases completely and successful.”

The Bengals will head to Geneseo next weekend, and will try to capture their first men’s outdoor track and field SUNYAC championship since 1967 and the women’s first-ever outdoor track and field SUNYAC championship.