Men's Track & Field Finishes Off Third Place at NE10 Outdoor Championships


Hubbell helped a pair of relays to All-NE10 performances on Saturday, including a school-record effort in the 4x100 (PHOTO BY Denise Archetto)

Skyhawks post four second place finishes on day two, end weekend with eight All-NE10 performances

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (May 5, 2018) – The Stonehill College men's track and field program, ranked No. 2 in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Region rankings, finished the weekend with eight All-Conference performances, including five more today, as it capped off a third place finish at the 2018 Northeast-10 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Southern Connecticut State University, at Jess Dow Field today.

Led by four second place finishes on day two and eight All-NE10 performances over the course of the weekend, Stonehill compiled 102.50 points to take third place in the team standings. Host Southern Connecticut State University finished off its 15th NE10 Championship, out of a possible 16 events, with 240 points, while American International College took second with 138.50. Franklin Pierce University place fourth (85.50 points) and Merrimack College (81) rounded out the top five.

Stonehill's 4x100-meter relay turned in a second-place finish, breaking its own school-record set just last weekend with a time of 41.71-seconds. Earning All-NE10 honors for their efforts were freshman Desmond Bernal (Warwick, Rhode Island/Bishop Hendricken) on the lead leg, followed by sophomore Justin Ireland (Norton, Massachusetts/Norton) on the second leg, with senior All-American Joshua Hubbell (Gloucester, Massachusetts/St. John's Prep) on the third leg and then junior Joe Connolly (Wilmington, Massachusetts/Austin Prep) on the anchor leg.


Connolly earned All-NE10 honors for the 100-meter dash as well as the record-breaking 4x100. (PHOTO BY Denise Archetto)

Connolly also earned All-NE10 honors in the 100-meter dash, finishing third in 10.90-seconds, marking his first individual All-Conference honor of his carfeer. Ireland followed in seventh at 11.09-seconds. Connolly qualified fifth in yesterday's prelims in a personal-best 10.85-seconds, while Ireland was the top qualifier with a season-best time of 10.81. Connolly and Ireland also finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 200-meter dash finals. Connolly clocked in at 22.02-seconds, while Ireland finished in 22.14. Connolly qualified third for the final in a personal-best 21.70-seconds on Friday evening, while Ireland qualified fourth in a season-best 21.76.

Hubbell also anchored Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay that earned All-NE10 honors with a second place finish in a season-low 3:17.16. Joining Hubbell in collecting All-Conference honors in the event were junior Daniel Madsen (West Haven, Connecticut/Notre Dame-West Haven) who ran the lead leg, followed by sophomore Andrew Scarlotto (Portsmouth, New Hampshire/Portsmouth) on the second leg, and then junior All-American Stephen Vercollone (Pembroke, Massachusetts/Pembroke) ran the third leg, before Hubbell completed his anchor leg in 48.93-seconds – unofficially near school-record pace. Hubbell earns the first two All-Conference awards for the Outdoor Championship, to go with two more relay honors during the Indoor Championships.

Junior Xavier Young (Barnegat, New Jersey/Barnegat) earned All-NE10 honors for the second time in his rookie track & field season with his second place finish in the shot put. He posted an outdoor personal-best matching distance of 50-feet, 7.50-inches second throw of the final round, finishing just a half inch behind the event winner. Classmate Darren Shi (Yarmouth, Massachusetts/Yarmouth) placed tenth with a distance of 43-04.25. Young also placed 12th in the discus throw with a distance of 114-feet, even. Senior Stefan Balestra (Lincoln, Rhode Island/Lincoln) finished 13th with a throw of 112-09.

Freshman Kevin Wheelock (Melrose, Massachusetts/Melrose) rounded out Stonehill's individuals to earn All-NE10 honors with his second place finish in the 5000-meter run, posting a time of 15:07.01. He led five Skyhawks in the field of 24 runners and was followed by junior Lawrence Carney (Lowell, Massachusetts/Lowell) in fifth with a time of 15:20.34, while senior Sam Bradford (Bedford, Massachusetts/Bedford) finished seventh in 15:26.41 to round out Stonehill's scoring runners in the event.


Wheelock earned his second All-NE10 award of his freshman season with a second place finish in the 5000m (PHOTO BY Denise Archetto)

Junior All-American Lucas Taxter (Readville, Massachusetts/Xaverian) narrowly missed a second All-NE10 performance of the weekend, finishing fourth out of 39 entries in the 800-meter run in 1:54.43. Vercollone was the second of seven Stonehill runners in the event, leading a pack of four-straight Skyhawks in 16th at 1:56.82. Taxter finished third in the 1500-meter run on Friday night for his first career outdoor All-NE10 performance.

Freshman Ethan Famiano (Warwick, Rhode Island/Bishop Hendricken) notched a fifth-place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.18-seconds today after qualifying fourth out of 18 entries in yesterday's preliminary round in a season-best 14.99. He also placed 12th in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in a personal-best 57.50-seconds.

Senior Jimmy Murphy (Mansfield, Massachusetts/Mansfield) and junior Riley Dowd (Peabody, Massachusetts/Peabody) ran sixth and seventh, respectively in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Murphy finished in 9:45.16, while Dowd clocked in at a personal-best 10:00.45.

Madsen finished tenth out of 22 competitors in the 400-meter dash in a personal-best time of 50.02-seconds, while Scarlotto placed 14th in a season-best 50.58. Senior Jordan Sullivan (Sound Beach, New York/Miller Place) finished seventh in the high jump, clearing a height of 6-feet, 0.50-inches, while classmate Jonathan Naval (Stratford, Connecticut/Bunnell) picked up a point for Stonehill with an eighth place finish in the triple jump as he cleared a season-long distance of 44-feet, 3.50-inches on his second attempt of the day.

Additional All-NE10 honors on Friday included senior Anthony Innamorati (Clinton, Massachusetts/Clinton) in the pole vault for the seventh time in his career, while classmate Kenny Vinacco (Scituate, Rhode Island/Scituate) finished second in the 10,000-meter run for his third All-NE10 effort of his senior year.

Stonehill is back in action next weekend, when its qualifiers compete at the New England Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

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