CANTON, N.Y. - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's track and field team put up fast numbers for high scores on Friday, as the Engineers finished the first day of the Liberty League Indoor Championships held at St. Lawrence University at the top of the pack in first place.

The highlights:

• RPI junior James Zeolla and Ithaca senior Brendan Sheehan both cleared 5.00 meters in the pole vault. Zeolla was the winner by virtue of having fewer missed attempts in the competition. He entered the competition by successfully clearing the bar at 4.60 meters. After passing at 4.75, he successfully cleared 4.90 and 5.00 in his first attempts. His winning mark matched his personal best. Zeolla and Sheehan entered the competition tied for 11th nationally and will move into the top five after clearing 5.00 meters.
• RPI first-year Alex Flynn won the 400 with a time of 49.96. Flynn finished just .13 seconds ahead of RIT junior Max Stein (50.09).
• RPI dominated the 5,000-meter run, taking the top three places and five of the top seven. Senior Cory Kennedy, ranked third nationally in the event, set a championship record with a winning time of 14:41.37, breaking the mark of 14:50.57 set in 2018 by James Bailey of RIT. RPI senior Mitchell Dailey (14:43.88) and junior Vince Simonetti (14:48.21) also finished under the previous record time.
• RPI added another meet record in the distance medley relay as the team of Danny Gall, Rahul Maharjan, Dominic Pena and Joey Smith recorded a championship record time of 10:17.27. The Engineers, who won by nearly nine seconds, broke the record of 10:19.43 set in 2019 by Ithaca.

RPI returns to action on Saturday for the second and final day of the championships. Things in Canton kick off at 11:30 a.m.