Polito and Gelcius Lead Stonehill on Day Two of New England Championships


Junior John Gelcius earned All-New England honors for the first time in the javelin throw, shattering his own program record and moving up to 15th on the NCAA provisional qualifying charts.

Gelcius and Polito post All-New England and school-record performances to lead Skyhawks to fifth place after day two of championships

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 12, 2012) – The Stonehill College men's track and field team, ranked third his week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Regional ratings index, sits in fifth place behind a pair of All-New England performances following day two of the 2012 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEIAAA) Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Henry G. Steinbrenner Stadium on Friday.

Stonehill compiled 14 points behind a pair of All-New England efforts, ranking second among Division II programs at the meet and fifth overall. The University of Rhode Island leads the way with 53 points, while Southern Connecticut State University is second with 26 points and the University of Massachusetts rounds out the top three with 20 points.

Junior John Gelcius (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) shattered his own school record and improved on his NCAA provisional qualifying standard in the javelin throw by achieving a distance of 204-feet, 8-inches with first throw of the day. He earned All-New England honors for the first time in his career with his third place finish overall, breaking his previous school record of 197-7 set at the UConn Huskies Invitational on March 31 and moving up to 15th nationally in Division II this season.


Senior Stephen Polito earned All-New England honors in the 10,000-meters for the third time with his second straight second place finish, breaking the school-record.

Senior Stephen Polito (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial) earned All-New England honors in the 10,000-meter run for the third time in his career with a second-straight second place finish overall (in the field of 28) with a school-record time of 30:50.48. He broke the previous program record of 31:04.77 set by T.J. Smith at the IC4A Championships at Princeton University on May 14, 2004, and shredded over 24-seconds off his previous personal best of 31:14.61 at the 2011 New England Championships. It marks his second All-New England performance of his senior year, and fourth in his career overall, to go with All-New England honors at the 2011 Cross Country Championships in October with an 11th place finish overall.

Freshman Bryan Wilcox (Plantsville, Conn./Southington) finished 12th overall in the 10,000 with his time of 32:18.68, while senior Corey Donahoe (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial) placed 25th in 33:49.77.

Freshman Teague Grubel (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain) qualified for tomorrow's final in the 100-meter dash with his time of 10.85-seconds, marking the second-fastest time of the day and winning his heat.

Sophomore Xavier Harris-Dixon (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) qualified for Saturday's final in the 110-meter high hurdles with his time of 14.90-seconds. He qualified seventh overall and placed second in his heat.

Other Stonehill results on Friday:

Senior John Driscoll (Revere, Mass./Revere) placed 16th in the preliminary heats for the 400-meter hurdles with his time of 55.88-seconds.

Senior Daniel Kincade (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield) finished 20th in the hammer throw with a distance of 157-feet, 3-inches.

Sophomore Paul Cina (Pembroke, Mass./Pembroke) finished 28th in the 5000-meter run with his time of 15:48.20.

The final day of the New England Championships gets underway at MIT's Steinbrenner Stadium at noon.