Junior John Gelcius provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in May with his second place finish for the javelin.

Gelcius provisionally qualifies for NCAA Championships in javelin
Kincade breaks own school record in hammer throw 

STORRS, Conn. (March 31, 2012) – The Stonehill College track and field team opened its outdoor season by competing at the University of Connecticut Huskies Invitational at Sherman Outdoor Track today.

Junior John Gelcius (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships in Pueblo, Colo., in May for the javelin as he placed second overall and first among collegiate entries. His distance of 197-feet, 7.20-inches broke his own previous record of 196-02 set at the Bridgewater State Bears Invitational March 26 of last year. The throw is good for ninth overall in Division II so far this spring. Sophomore Taylor Viotto (Washington, N.J./Warren Hills) placed seventh with a throw of 169-10.56.

Senior captain Daniel Kincade (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield) placed fourth in the hammer throw with a school-record distance of 169-feet, 5.88-inches, surpassing his own previous record of 167-05 set at the Northeast-10 Conference Championships in Lowell last season. Kincade was also 21st in the discus throw with a distance of 121-feet, 11-inches.

Junior All-American Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High) placed second overall and first among collegiate entries in the high jump as he cleared 6-feet, 8.28-inches. Freshman Nicholas Staley (Medway, Mass./BC High) was fourth at 6-6.36.

Staley also placed 11th in the long jump by clearing 21-feet, 0.72-inches. Sophomore George Georgaklis (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) was ninth out of 27 competitors in the event with a distance of 22-00.60. Sophomore Alexander Willgoos (Newington, Conn./Newington) was 17th at 20-01.68. Georgaklis was also seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 44-feet, 0.36-inches.

Senior Danield Kincade broke his own school record in the hammer throw.

Sophomore Xavier Harris-Dixon (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) took third (out of 19) in the 110-meter high hurdles with his time of 15.43-seconds.

Other Stonehill highlights include:

Junior Luke Byrnes (Glen Head, N.Y./Chaminade) placed sixth in the pole vault after clearing 14-feet, 3.24-inches. Classmate Kevin McCann (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) also cleared 14-03.24, but finished eighth on attempts.

Freshman All-American Patrick Cooney (Douglaston, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) finished eighth (out of 56 runners) in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.58. Classmate Nicholas Capezzuto (North Reading, Mass./North Reading) placed 25th in 2:01.72.

Freshman Teague Grubel (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain) won his heat and placed ninth overall (out of 38 sprinters) in the 100-meter dash with his time of 11.25-seconds. Sophomore Michael Harris (Danvers, Mass./Danvers) placed 21st in 11.53-seconds, while junior Colin Prior (Georgetown, Mass./St. John's Prep) was 23rd in 11.57.

Grubel was also ninth in the 200-meter dash (out of 40) with a time of 22.88-seconds to finish second in his heat and second overall among Division II sprinters in the meet. Prior was 15th in 23.39, while freshman Robert Smith (Woburn, Mass./Woburn) was 22nd in 23.96.

Harris, Prior, Smith and Grubel also ran legs on Stonehill's 4x100-meter relay team that turned in a ninth place finish in 43.59-seconds.

Senior captain John Driscoll (Revere, Mass./Revere) placed sixth (out of 16) in the 400-meter hurdles with his time of 58.76-seconds.

Freshmen Daniel Cormier (Methuen, Mass./Methuen) and Ian Parsons (Nashua, N.H./Nashua South) placed tenth and 11th in the shot put, respectively. Cormier threw a distance of 43-feet, 2.16-inches, while Parsons cleared 42-11.40.

Sophomore Thomas Banks (Peabody, Mass./Bishop Fenwick) finished 14th (out of 23) in the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.51-seconds.

Junior Tim Johnson (Thomaston, Conn./Thomaston) placed 15th (out of 59) in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:02.81, while sophomore All-American Justin Blaszczyk (Saint James, N.Y./Smithtown) finished 17th in 4:03.04.

 Stonehill is back in action next Saturday for the George Davis Invitational, hosted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, at 10 a.m.