Murphy earned All-New England honors for the first time in his career with a personal-best time in the 3000m steeplechase. |
Murphy, Demeule and 4x800 collect All-New England status on Saturday
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. (May 13, 2017) – The Stonehill College men's track and field program finished its weekend at the New England Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Williams College, with five All-New England performances after collecting three more on day two of the Championships at Lee Track today.
Junior James Murphy (Mansfield, Massachusetts/Mansfield) led the way for Stonehill on Saturday by earning All-New England honors for the first time in his career with a fifth place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a personal-best time of 9:20.15.
Sophomore Alexander Demeule (Merrimac, Massachusetts/Pentucket Regional) posted the first individual All-New England performance of his career (second overall) with an eighth place finish, out of 27 competitors in the 1500-meter run as he recorded a personal-best time of 3:54.53. He led three Stonehill runners in the event as classmate Lucas Taxter (Readville, Massachusetts/Xaverian Brothers) finished 19th in 3:58.06 and Christopher Drace (Franklin, New Jersey/Pope John XXIII) took 24th in 4:00.56.
Burleigh earned All-New England honors with the 4x800 relay all four years at the Outdoor Championships. (PHOTO BY Mark Connolly) |
Stonehill's 4x800-meter relay team rounded out the All-New England performances on Saturday with a sixth place finish in 7:46.30. Collecting All-New England honors for their efforts in the relay were senior Duncan Burleigh (Hingham, Massachusetts/Hingham) and sophomores Matthew Shaw (Goffstown, New Hampshire/Goffstown), David Lockhart (Stoughton, Massachusetts/Stoughton) and Stephen Vercollone (Pembroke, Massachusetts/Pembroke). It marks the eighth All-New England award for Burleigh, including his fourth at the New England Outdoor Championships with the 4x800m, while it's the fourth All-New England award for Lockhart and Vercollone and the third for Shaw.
Vercollone narrowly missed a second All-New England award this afternoon, finishing tenth out of 30 competitors in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.21. Junior Jon Naval (Stratford, Connecticut/Bunnell) placed ninth out of 17 entries in the triple jump as he cleared a distance of 45-feet, 3.50-inches, finishing one spot from All-New England status.
Demeule earns his first individual All-New England honor with his eighth place finish in the 1500m run. |
Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay team wrapped up the Championships with a tenth place finish out of 18 teams with a time of 3:18.08. Senior All-American Matthew Baldasare (Mansfield, Massachusetts/Mansfield) capped his career by running the anchor leg after sophomore Daniel Madsen (West Haven, Connecticut/Notre Dame-West Haven) took the lead leg, followed by freshman Andrew Scarlotto (Portsmouth, New Hampshire/Portsmouth) and then junior Joshua Hubbell (Gloucester, Massachusetts/St. John's Prep).
Stonehill finished 13th in the team standings at the two-day New England Championships with 13 points. The University of Rhode Island won the team title with 163 points, followed by Northeastern University with 145. The Skyhawks were second among the Division II programs entered in the Championships behind only Southern Connecticut State University in fifth with 51 points.
Senior Joe Santo (Newburyport, Massachusetts/Newburyport) and junior Anthony Innamorati (Clinton, Massachusetts/Clinton) got Stonehill's weekend started on its way to five All-New England performances with school-record efforts on Friday. Santo earned All-New England honors for the third time in his career with his fifth place finish in the 5000-meter run, breaking a ten-year-old school record with his NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 14:35.53. Innamorati earned All-New England honors at the Outdoor Championships for the second-straight year in the pole vault with a school-record matching height of 15-feet, 5-inches.
Stonehill will now wait to see if any of its provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in two weeks in Bradenton, Florida, are accepted this week. Vercollone is the Skyhawks top-ranked runner at No. 31 for the 800-meters.
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