Thomas |
Massey |
Brookline, Mass., senior All-American collects first weekly honor of outdoor season
Chelmsford, Mass., freshman named Track Rookie of the Week for first time
EASTON, Mass. (April 8, 2013) – Stonehill College senior All-American Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High) and freshman Robert Massey (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) have collected weekly track and field honors from the Northeast-10 Conference office today.
Thomas has been named the NE-10 Field Athlete of the Week for the first time this spring during the outdoor season, while Massey has earned NE-10 Track Rookie of the Week accolades for the first time for their efforts for Stonehill at the Duke University Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Thomas, who earns Field Athlete of the Week honors for the sixth time this year overall, including the indoor season, (18 career) to go with one Track Athlete of the Week selection (two career), won the high jump event and placed fourth for the 110-meter high hurdles on Saturday. He cleared an NCAA Division II Championships provisional qualifying height of 6-feet, 10.25-inches in winning the high jump and posted a time of 14.66-seconds in the 110-meter hurdles final to place fourth. Thomas qualified for the final second to eventual event winner Milan Ristic of UNC-Ashville with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 14.46-seconds. He is currently ranked sixth nationally in Division II for the high jump and 15th for the hurdles after his first event of the outdoor season.
Thomas, an eight time All-American with his two honors for the high jump and 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala., last month, was named the NE-10 Indoor Athlete of the Year for the third time this winter as well. He posted All-New England and All-East Region honors for both the high jump and 60-meter hurdles, setting new indoor school records for both events over the winter. Thomas captured the NE-10 titles for both events in February, marking his fourth-straight hurdles championship and second for the high jump, to help lead the Skyhawks to their first NE-10 team championship.
Thomas, the 2011 NCAA Division II National Champion for the high jump, has earned All-America honors for indoor high jump four times and outdoor high jump and 60-meter hurdles twice each. The three-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Region Field Athlete of the Year has won four New England Championships over his career, with two indoor high jump titles, one outdoor championship and he is the first dual New England Champion in program history after winning both the outdoor high jump and 110-meter high hurdles titles his freshman year.
Thomas has earned 13 All-New England and 14 All-Northeast-10 Conference honors, six USTFCCCA All-Region and won ten Northeast-10 titles (six hurdles and four high jump). Thomas holds the school record in all five events he competes in at Stonehill, clearing a record 7-feet, 3-inches at the Joe Donahue Indoor Collegiate Games in January and finishing the 60-meter hurdles in 7.88-seconds at the New England Championships in February. In addition to his two indoor records set this season, he cleared an outdoor high jump record 7-1.5 at the U.S. Junior Nationals at Drake University during the summer following his freshman year. Thomas ran the 110-meter hurdles in a record time of 14.31-seconds at the 2011 New England Outdoor Championships and also holds the 55-meter hurdles record of 7.45-seconds set at the 2010 New England Indoor Championships.
Massey collects his first weekly award from the NE-10 after finishing fourth in the 3000-meter run at Duke on Friday evening, establishing a program record with his time of 8:56.13 to place second among collegiate runners in the event behind just second place Braedon Koerwitz from the University of North Carolina (8:46.32).
Massey is coming off an indoor season in which he earned All-New England and All-Northeast-10 honors as part of Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay team. The team finished eighth at the New England Championships in 7:42.58 and second at the NE-10 Championships in 7:54.13. The 4x800 relay also turned in a runner up finish at the Joe Donahue Indoor Collegiate Games (7:59.94) in January, where Massey also finished sixth in the one mile run in 4:20.41. Massey's personal-best for the indoor mile came when he earned a point for the Skyhawks on their way to the NE-10 team championship with his eighth place showing in 4:20.06. He also finished third at the Reggie Poyau Invitational at Brandeis (4:25.57) in December and third for the 3000-meter run (8:57.68) in his collegiate debut at the UMass Boston Invitational.
Massey competed in four events during Stonehill's NE-10 Championship winning cross country season. He placed fifth at Saint Anselm College's Shaklette Invitational in his collegiate debut in 27:38.6 (8-kilometers) and was 36th at the NE-10 Championships in 27:00.4 (8K).
Stonehill is back in action on Saturday when it competes at the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Invitational in Amherst, Mass., starting at 11:30 a.m.
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