Thomas and 4x800 Relay Earn NE-10 Weekly Awards


Senior All-American Corey Thomas earned NE-10 Field Athlete of the Week for the 15th time in his career on Monday. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr)

Thomas earns Field Athlete of the Week honors for third time this season
Men's 4x800 repeats as NE-10 Relay of the Week

EASTON, Mass. (January 28, 2013) – Stonehill College senior All-American Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High) has been named the Northeast-10 Conference's Field Athlete of the Week and the Skyhawks' 4x800-meter relay team has collected NE-10 Relay of the Week honors for the second-straight week the league office announced on Monday.

Thomas, who earns NE-10 Field Athlete of the Week honors for the third time this season (15th career), led Stonehill to a fifth place team finish at the Joe Donahue Indoor Collegiate Games, hosted by Northeastern University at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center, on Friday night. He broke his own school records in two events and improved his qualification standards for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, in Birmingham, Ala., in March, for both the high jump and 60-meter hurdles.

Thomas cleared 7-feet, 3-inches to win the high jump event, marking the second highest jump in Division II this winter and breaking his own previous record of 7-2.25 set at the 2010 New England Indoor Championships, hosted by Boston University. He also clipped his own school record in the 60-meter high hurdles with his first place time of 8.04-seconds after qualifying first with a time of 8.16 seconds in the prelims. Thomas improved his provisional NCAA qualification time, ranking tenth nationally in the event, and breaking his previous school record of 8.07-seconds set at the 2012 New England Championships at BU.

Thomas has won the high jump at each of the four meets he has competed at so far this winter, while placing first in the hurdles two of the three times he has competed in the event, with a second place showing the remaining time. He has also competed with Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay in two meets, helping the squad to a third place showing at the URI Sorlien Invitational (3:28.87) on January 19.


Kirkpatrick

Massey

Blaszczyk

Zawalich

Thomas, the 2011 NCAA Division II National Champion for the high jump, is a six-time All-American, earning the honors for indoor high jump three times, outdoor high jump twice, as well and one All-America performance in the 60-meter hurdles in 2011. The three-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Region Field Athlete of the Year has won four New England Championship over his career, with two indoor high jump titles, one outdoor championship and he is the first dual New England Champion in program history after winning both the outdoor high jump and 110-meter high hurdles titles his freshman year.

Thomas has earned 11 All-New England and 12 All-Northeast-10 Conference honors, six USTFCCCA All-Region and won eight Northeast-10 titles (five hurdles and three high jump). Thomas holds the school record in all five events he competes in at Stonehill. He cleared an indoor school record 7-feet, 2.25-inches at the 2010 New England Championships, which he matched at the 2012 New England Championships, and an outdoor record 7-1.5 at the U.S. Junior Nationals at Drake University during the summer following his freshman year.

Thomas ran the 110-meter hurdles in a record time of 14.31-seconds at the 2011 New England Outdoor Championships. He also holds the 55-meter hurdles record of 7.45-seconds set at the 2010 New England Championships and the 60-meter hurdles mark of 8.07-seconds at the 2012 New England Championships.

Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay repeats as weekly winners of the NE-10's Relay of the Week award after placing second, behind just the University of New Hampshire, on Friday night with a time of 7:59.94. Running the event for the Skyhawks were freshman Nick Kirkpatrick (Carmel, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) with a 1:58.3 split on the lead leg, followed by a 2:01.2 split by classmate Robert Massey (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) on the second leg, with junior All-American Justin Blaszczyk (Saint James, N.Y./Smithtown) running the third leg in 2:02.2 and sophomore All-American Daniel Zawalich (Paxton, Mass./St. John's of Shrewsbury) running a 1:57.9 split on the anchor leg.

Blaszczyk is the lone holdover from last week's Relay of the Week winning 4x800 team. The Skyhawks won the event at the URI Sorlien Invitational with a time of 8:11.22, with Blaszczyk running the second leg in 2:03.2.

Stonehill is back in action on Saturday when it returns to the University of Rhode Island to compete in the URI Coaches' Tribute Invitational starting at 11 a.m.

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