Sophomore Nick Staley won his first New England Championship in the high jump with a personal best jump of 7-feet, 0.25-inches. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr) |
Staley captures New England Championship for high jump
Thomas posts two All-New England performances, smashes 60-meter hurdles record
BOSTON, Mass. (February 23, 2013) – The Northeast-10 Conference Champion Stonehill College men's track & field program, ranked 20th in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II Championship rankings, posted a tenth place team finish at the 2013 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Boston University, at the BU Track & Tennis Center which concluded with second day action today.
Stonehill posted 26 points over the two day event for its top ten finish, good for second among Division II programs at the event. The University of Connecticut won the team championship for the second straight year with 164.50 points, while Southern Connecticut State University was the top Division II program with 38 points to place seventh overall.
Sophomore Nick Staley (Medway, Mass./BC High) captured his first New England Championship with a victory in the high jump as he cleared a personal-best height of 7-feet, 0.25-inches, moving up to No. 4 nationally in Division II and further cementing a spot at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., from March 7-9. It also gives Stonehill two athletes who have cleared 7-feet in their careers – marking the first time a school has had two clear the height since the 1970s.
Senior All-American Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High), who has won New England indoor high jump titles as a freshman and junior, posted his fourth-straight All-New England performance in the high jump as he finished third behind Staley and University of Connecticut senior Noel James (6-10.25) by clearing 6-feet, 8.25-inches.
Thomas made it two All-New England performances for the fourth straight year on Saturday, by smashing his own school-record in the 60-meter high hurdles set just last week with a second place finish in 7.88-seconds as he was just edged by University of Connecticut sophomore Selwyn Maxwell (7.87) by just a hundredth of a second. Thomas, who broke his previous event record of 7.98-seconds set with his NE-10 Championship performance last Saturday, automatically qualifies for the NCAA Championships in two weeks and moves up to fourth nationally in the event.
Senior All-American Corey Thomas posted a pair of All-New England performances on Saturday, breaking his own 60-meter hurdles record in the process. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr) |
Thomas, who qualified for Saturday's rounds with the fourth-fastest time in Friday night's preliminary heats (8.09-seconds), qualified first for today's final in 8.00-seconds flat in the morning semifinal heats. Junior Xavier Dixon (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) miss out on the final by just 0.02-seconds with his semifinal time of 8.25-seconds to place ninth in the semifinals today.
Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay team collected All-New England honors with an eighth place finish in 7:42.58 – first among Division II entries. Running the event for the Skyhawks were sophomore All-American Patrick Cooney (Douglaston, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) with a 1:55.5 split on the first leg, before junior Christopher Dooley (Weymouth, Mass./Weymouth) ran the second leg in 1:55.8, freshman Nick Kirkpatrick (Carmel, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) completed the third leg in 1:54.9 and then senior All-American Sean Hanlon (Georgetown, Mass./St. John's Prep) ran the anchor leg in 1:56.3.
It marks the second All-New England performance for Hanlon on the weekend as he ran the 800-meter leg in Friday's 4000-distance medley relay what finished eighth in 9:57.39. Stonehill's DMR slightly improved its NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying time by completing the relay in 9:57.39 – tops among Division II entries in the event. Running for the Skyhawks were senior Tim Johnson (Thomaston, Conn./Thomaston) with a 3:03.8 split on the opening 1200-meter leg, followed by classmate Sam Spencer (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk) who ran the 400-meter leg in 50.3-seconds, before Hanlon completed the 800-meter leg in 1:54.4 and then sophomore All-American Dan Zawalich (Paxton, Mass./St. John's of Shrewsbury) ran the 1600-meter anchor leg in 4:08.6.
Other Stonehill Highlights on Saturday Include:
Junior Herby Saintil (Roslindale, Mass./BC High) placed 14th in the triple-jump with a distance of 44-feet, 5.25-inches.
Sophomore Daniel Cormier (Methuen, Mass./Methuen) finished 15th in the shot put with a distance of 47-feet, 5.75-inches.
Johnson led three Stonehill runners in the one mile run with a 22nd place finish in 4:15.17. Spencer finished 26th in 4:16.64, while Zawalich was 27th in 4:17.23.
Stonehill now awaits its full list of competitors who have earned spots at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships when they are announced this week. The 2013 Indoor Championships will be held in Birmingham, Ala., March 7-9.
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