Stonehill returns to Nationals with DMR after two-year hiatus
NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships Schedule & Accepted Athletes List
EASTON, Mass. (March 8, 2018) – Stonehill College men's track and field 4000-meter distance medley relay team, including Alexander Demeule (Merrimac, Massachusetts/Pentucket Regional), Stephen Vercollone (Pembroke, Massachusetts/Pembroke), Lucas Taxter (Readville, Massachusetts/Xaverian Brothers), and Joshua Hubbell (Holliston, Massachusetts/Holliston), are set to represent the Skyhawks at the 2018 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Pittsburg State University at the state of the art Robert W. Plaster Center.
All four will be competing in their first Indoor Championship, Demeule and Taxter have previously run in NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.
The DMR is currently seeded ninth on the NCAA performance list with their time of 9:49.51 from the 2018 Northeast-10 Conference Indoor Championship at the Smith College Indoor Track & Tennis Center.
Demeule |
Hubbell |
Taxter |
Vercollone |
The quartet ran the event three times this season to get to this point, starting off with a first-place finish at the URI Sorlien Memorial Invitational, clocking in at 10:34.66. The relay team then took home second for an All-New England honor, bypassing the NCAA Division II provisional time of 10:05.36 with their mark of 9:51.49. Most recently, the quartet posted a season-best time of 9:57.51 at the NE10 Indoor Championships, where they finished second behind the eighth-place American International College in the performance list.
The DMR earned All-NE10 honors for the first time since 2013 with its runner-up finish, less than a second behind the Yellow Jackets. Demeule ran the 1200-meter opening leg in 3:04.59, followed by Hampton Boyd (Holliston, Massachusetts/Holliston) completing the 400-meter leg in 49.94-seconds, before Vercollone finished the 800-meter leg in 1:52.65, and then Taxter ran the mile anchor in 4:10.34.
In 2015, the team posted a program-best third place finish at the Birmingham CrossPlex clocking in with a time of 9:50.82 to earn All-America honors for the second-straight year and seventh time over the last 12 years. Nick Kirkpatrick ran the opening 1200-meter leg in 2:59.9, as Teage Grubel completed the 400-meter leg in 50.2-seconds. Patrick Cooney followed with a 1:53.0 split in the 800-meter leg, before Daniel Zawalich brought the top three finish home with a time of 4:07.3 in the one-mile anchor leg.
The NCAA Track and Field Championship schedule will run from Friday, March 9 to Saturday, March 10. The men's distance medley relay will run first at 6:40 p.m. on Friday, followed by the women's DMR event at 7:00 p.m.
All session passes for the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships are $20. Single session passes are $12 for adults and $7 for students and children ages 3-18, children two years and under are free. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Pittsburg State University Ticket Office, by phone at 620-235-4796 or online at http://www.pittstate.edu/office/tickets/. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of competition at the spectator entrance to the Robert W. Plaster Center. Links to live results as well as live video webcast will be available via stonehillskyhawks.com for both days.
The Stonehill men's track and field program finished third at the Northeast-10 Conference Indoor Championship. The squad wrapped up the season with eight All-Conference honors and 12 Skyhawks earning 14 USTFCCA All-East Region honors.
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