LEFT TO RIGHT: Lanahan, Vercollone, Shaw and Taxter captured the New England title in the 4x800-meter run today. |
Skyhawks 4x800m follows up Friday night's DMR title with another first place show
DORCHESTER, Mass. (February 2, 2019) – It was a weekend for the relays, as Stonehill College's 4x800-meter relay added a second New England Championship to the weekend as the Skyhawk men finished with four All-New England performances at the 2019 New England Intercollegiate Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center today.
Stonehill's impressive relay weekend continued when half of last night's championship 4000-meter distance medley relay team led the 4x800-meter relay to victory this afternoon in 7:38.48 – a second faster than the team from the University of Massachusetts (7:39.49). Senior All-Americans Lucas Taxter and Stephen Vercollone, along with classmate Matthew Shaw and sophomore Christopher Lanahan collected All-New England honors for their efforts, marking the ninth-straight year the Skyhawks 4x800 has posted an All-New England finish. Vercollone ran the lead leg in 1:54.9, followed by Lanahan with a 1:55.6 split on the second leg, and then Shaw ran the third leg in 1:55.3, before handing the baton to Taxter for a 1:52.5 anchor leg.
Taxter and Vercollone, along with fellow senior All-American Alex Demeule and sophomore Hampton Boyd also made program history on Friday night, by taking the New England title in the DMR in an NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 9:53.89 sixth nationally.
Ireland earned All-New England honors in the 60m dash with a sixth place finish (PHOTO BY Mark Connolly) |
Junior Justin Ireland earned All-New England honors for the second time in his career with first individual performance after his sixth place finish in the 60-meter dash this afternoon. He clocked in at 7.00-seconds in the final after qualifying eighth in 7.05-seconds during the semifinals earlier in the day. He advanced to today's round by matching the seventh fastest time out of 30 entries in 7.06-seconds in the preliminary heats, finishing third in his section.
Freshman Nickolas McNamee earned All-New England honors for the first time in his career with a seventh place finish out of 23 entries in the one mile run with a time of 4:16.38, shattering is previous season-best by nearly six seconds. He earned the honors from the unseeded section, with a first place finish. Senior Riley Dowd placed 20th in 4:29.33.
With its two New England championships and four All-New England efforts over the weekend, Stonehill finished ninth in the team standings with 25 points. The University of Connecticut won the team title with 194 points, followed by Northeastern University with 115 and Southern Connecticut State University with 71.
Stonehill is back in action next Saturday, when the team splits between the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by Boston University, and the University of Rhode Island's Coaches' Tribute Meet. The Skyhawks championship season will continue the following weekend, February 16 and 17 at the Northeast-10 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by American International College, at Smith College's Indoor Track facility.
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