Freshman Teague Grubel earned All-New England honors for both the 100-meter dash and 4x100-meter relay. |
Grubel earns All-New England honors in two events to highlight Saturday's action
Skyhawks collect ten All-New England honors over two days in posting program-best team finish
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 12, 2012) – The Stonehill College men's track and field team, ranked third in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Regional ratings index, turned in a program-best third place team finish at 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 as competition concluded on Saturday.
Stonehill, who posted ten All-New England performances over the two days, totaled 54 points for its third place finish, marking the highest ever team standing at the event. The University of Rhode Island, who swept the men's and women's team titles, posted 169 points, while Southern Connecticut State University and American International College tied for second with 60 points each.
Freshman Teague Grubel (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain) earned All-New England honors in a pair of events to lead the way for Stonehill on day two. He anchored the Skyhawks 4x100-meter relay team that placed third overall in 42.20-seconds. Also running for Stonehill was sophomore Michael Harris (Danvers, Mass./Danvers), senior John Driscoll (Revere, Mass./Revere) and junior Colin Prior (Georgetown, Mass./St. John's Prep).
Grubel also collected All-New England honors with his fourth place finish in the 100-meter dash with a season-best time of 10.80-seconds. He qualified second overall on Friday in 10.85-seconds.
Freshman Nicholas Staley placed second in the high jump to earn his second All-New England honor as a freshman. |
Freshman Nicholas Staley (Medway, Mass./BC High) and junior All-American Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High) both earned All-New England honors in the high jump with second and third place finishes, respectively. Staley posts his second All-New England performance of his rookie season with this second place finish with a height of 6-feet, 8.75-inches, after placing fourth during the indoor championships. Thomas earned outdoor All-New England honors for the high jump for the third-straight season, marking the 11th All-New England performance of his career, with his third place finish on Saturday. He also cleared 6-8.75, but needed two attempts, to finish behind Staley.
Junior Ethan Penney (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) earned All-New England honors for the second-straight year, this time in the 3000-meter steeplechase after collecting the honors for the 5000-meter run last spring. Penney finished sixth in the field of 31 with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 9:17.48, but nearly three seconds shy of his program record season-best. Sophomore Nathaniel Webber (Atkinson, N.H./Central Catholic) finished 25th in 9:50.80.
Junior Luke Byrnes earned All-New England honors for the second-straight year for the pole vault. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr) |
Sophomore Xavier Harris-Dixon (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) earned All-New England honors for the second-straight year in the 110-meter high hurdles by placing fifth in a personal-best 14.67-seconds. Harris-Dixon qualified seventh overall in Friday's prelims with a time of 14.90-seconds.
Junior Luke Byrnes (Glen Head, N.Y./Chaminade) earned All-New England honors for the second-straight season in the pole vault as he cleared 14-feet, 11-inches. Classmate Kevin McCann (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) placed 17th with a height of 13-11.25.
Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay team also turned in an All-New England performance with a fourth place finish in 7:44.83. Running for the Skyhawks were junior All-American Sean Hanlon (Georgetown, Mass./St. John's Prep), freshman All-American Patrick Cooney (Douglaston, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy), junior Samuel Spencer (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk) and sophomore All-American Justin Blaszczyk (Saint James, N.Y./Smithtown).
Cooney and Hanlon also finished ninth and tenth, respectively in the 800-meter run, just missing on more All-New England honors. Cooney clocked in at 1:53.49, while Hanlon was right on his heels in 1:53.51.
Senior Stephen Polito (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial) and junior John Gelcius (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) highlighted Stonehill's efforts on Friday with their All-New England efforts. Gelcius 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, earning All-New England honors for the first time in his career with his third place finish overall. Polito 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.
Stonehill will now await the official NCAA Championship qualifiers when they are announced this week. The 2012 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Colorado State University-Pueblo at Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl, will be held Thursday, May 24, through Saturday, May 26.