Buffalo State sprinter Latoya D. Edwards (Brooklyn/ Clara Barton) and Head Track & Field Coach Eugene Lewis were both honored today by the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). Edwards was named the SUNYAC Women’s Indoor Runner of the Year, and Lewis was recognized at the SUNYAC Indoor Men’s Coach of the Year.

Edwards led the Bengals to a third-place finish at Saturday’s championship meet as part of three of the Bengals’ four first-place finished. Edwards won the 55-meter dash, with a provisional time of 7.28 seconds, won the 200-meter dash with a new school record time of 25.81 seconds, and anchored the winning 4x400-meter relay. In the relay, she teamed with Suzan Spence (Brooklyn/ Canarsie), Katya Marin (Mt. Vernon/ Mt. Vernon) and Anika Niles (Brooklyn/ Samuel J. Tilden) to set a new meet and school record with a time of 4:01.65. The time bettered the previous school best by more than nine seconds, and won the race by more than eight seconds.

Lewis guided the men’s team to its best-ever indoor finish, placing second of eight teams, improving three places from last year. The men captured three individual championships and won one relay event. Mario Hicks (Corning/ Corning West) captured the 55-meter hurdles with an NCAA provisional time of 7.67 seconds. Ali Abdul-Matin (Troy/ Troy) won the triple jump with a provisional qualifying distance of 14.22 meters, and Willie Jones (Cheektowaga/ Amherst) won the high jump, clearing 1.98 meters. The 4x400-meter relay team of Xavier Mateen (New Rochelle/ New Rochelle), Maurice Little (Newburgh/ Newburgh), Keith Henry (Galveston, TX/ Ball) and Volter Dalzon (Pt. Chester/ Stepinac) also crossed first in 3:24.32.

Buffalo State will compete at the NYSCTC Championships next weekend at St. Lawrence.