Junior All-American Nick Kirkpatrick anchored the Skyhawks 4x800 relay that broke an eight year old school record. (PHOTO BY SportsPix) |
Skyhawks 4x800-meter relay posts third All-New England performance of the weekend with school-record effort
BOSTON, Mass. (February 28, 2015) – Stonehill College, ranked third in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Regional rankings, added another All-New England relay performance on Saturday as it completed a 20th place team finish at the men's New England Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Boston University, at the BU Track & Tennis Center today.
Stonehill finished the weekend with 11 points for a 20th place finish out the 50 New England programs from Divisions I, II and III competing at the Championships. Northeastern University won the team title with 161 points, nearly doubling the point total of runner-up University of Rhode Island (89 points), while Southern Connecticut State University was third (51).
Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay team highlighted day two for the Skyhawks by earning All-New England honors with a school-record performance to finish fifth out of 19 teams with a time of 7:37.74. The Skyhawks placed first among non-Division I relays competing in the event and broke the previous eight-year-old school record of 7:40.95 set at the 2007 New England Championships at BU.
Junior Mason Griffin broke his own school record in the shot put on Saturday. (PHOTO BY SportsPix) |
Senior All-American Patrick Cooney (Douglaston, New York/Archbishop Molloy) ran the lead leg in 1:54.9, before handing the baton to sophomore Duncan Burleigh (Hingham, Massachusetts/Hingham) for a 1:56.0 split, with freshman Jason Dimmick (Sutton, Massachusetts/Sutton) completing the third leg in 1:54.8 and then junior All-American Nick Kirkpatrick (Carmel, Indiana/Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) running the anchor leg in 1:52.1. Kirkpatrick's unofficial split is under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard.
Junior Mason Griffin (Wellesley, Massachusetts) narrowly missed earning the first All-New England award of his career, placing ninth out of 21 entries in the shot put and breaking his own school record with a distance of 49-feet, 1.50-inches. Griffin previously set a school record with a toss of 47-09.25 at the Tufts University Invitational in January.
Cooney and Kirkpatrick were part of Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay team that posted an All-New England performance on Friday night with its third place finish in 9:50.89. The relay was just 0.56-seconds shy of the school record, to improve its NCAA provisional qualifying standard for the upcoming NCAA Division II Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, by posting the No. 6-ranked time in Division II this winter to date. Kirkpatrick ran the lead 1200-meter leg, while Cooney ran the 800-meter leg and the two were joined by senior Teague Grubel (Phoenix, Arizona/Shadow Mountain) for the 400-meter leg and senior All-American Daniel Zawalich (Paxton, Massachusetts/St. John's of Shrewsbury) for the one mile anchor leg.
Senior Bryan Wilcox (Plantsville, Connecticut/Southington) also earned All-New England honors on Friday night with his eighth place finish in the 5000-meter run in 14:50.31.
Stonehill will now await the official entries for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, March 13-14, when they are announced this coming week.
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