Mansfield, Mass., freshman earns Rookie of the Week honors for second time 

EASTON, Mass. (April 23, 2014) – Stonehill College freshman All-American Matt Baldasare (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) has been named the Northeast-10 Conference men's track Rookie of the Week by the league office.

Baldasare earns NE-10 Rookie of the Week honors for the first time during the outdoor season, but the second time this season overall after collecting the honors during the indoor season on February 10. He helped lead Stonehill to a fourth place team finish at Saturday's Holy Cross Invitational in Worcester, Mass., with a pair of top five individual finishes. He placed fifth in the field of 15 sprinters for the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.01-seconds while also finishing fifth out of 20 entries in the 200-meter dash in 23.36-seconds.

Baldasare earned All-America honors as part of Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay team that finished seventh at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C., in March, running the 400-meter leg. He has competed in three of Stonehill's four outdoor meets in his first collegiate season and in addition to his season-best 100 and 200-meter times listed above, he ran a season-best 400-meter dash in 49.96-seconds at the Colonial Relays, hosted by William & Mary University, on April 3.

Baldasare earned All-New England honors as part of Stonehill's distance medley relay and was part of the Skyhawks 4x400-meter relay that won the NE-10 Indoor Championship in February with a time of 3:24.15. He also collected U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region honors as part of both relays and All-Northeast-10 honors with a second place finish in the 400-meter dash at the indoor championships in 49.79-seconds. Baldasare and the 4x400 relay team narrowly missed out on All-New England honors for that event with a ninth place finish at the New England Indoor Championships despite posting a school-record time of 3:18.08. In addition to his two NE-10 Rookie of the Week nods, Baldasare has been part of three NE-10 Relay of the Week efforts – one with the 4x400 and two with the DMR.

Stonehill, ranked second in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Regional computer rankings, is back in action on Friday night when it hosts its Skyhawk Invitational at W.B. Mason Stadium starting at 4 p.m. Stonehill will also serve as host of the 2014 Northeast-10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships the following weekend on Friday and Saturday, May 2-3.

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