Taxter earns NE10 Track Athlete of the Week honors for the first time. (PHOTO BY Mark Connolly) |
Taxter named NE10 Track Athlete of the Week for the first time
Boyd earns first NE10 Track Rookie of the Week honors and DMR collects NE10 Relay of the Week for second time
NE10 Track & Field Weekly Report
EASTON, Mass. (February 8, 2018) – The Stonehill College men's track & field program collected three weekly honors from the Northeast-10 Conference for their performances at the New England Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center over the weekend.
Junior Lucas Taxter (Readville, Massachusetts/Xaverian Brothers) was named the NE10 Track Athlete of the Week, while freshman Hampton Boyd (Holliston, Massachusetts/Holliston) earned NE10 Track Rookie of the Week and the pair were members of Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay that collected NE10 Relay of the Week accolades.
Taxter |
Boyd |
Demeule |
Vercollone |
Taxter earned NE10 Track Athlete of the Week honors for the first time in his career after earning a pair of All-New England honors and was part of two NCAA provisional qualifying efforts at the New England Championships. He posted a fifth place finish in the one mile run in 4:09.16 on Saturday to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships next month. He led five Division II entries in the event, with his personal-best time ranking 24th nationally in Division II and second on the NE10 Conference performance chart.
Taxter has run four different distances for Stonehill this season, having run a season-best 1:58.3 for a fourth place finish in the 800-meter run at the URI Sorlien Invitational on January 20, posting a second place finish in the 1000-meter run in 2:31.45 at the Branwen Smith-King Invitational at Tufts on January 27, and a season-best time of 8:59.70 for a fourth place finish in the 3000-meter run at the UMass Boston Indoor Open on December 5.
Taxter's two All-New England performances over the weekend give him three All-New England honors over his career. He earned USTFCCCA All-East Region honors for the 1500-meter run as a freshman in 2016 and in helping lead the men's cross country team to the East Region Championship with a third place finish this fall, after earning All-NE10 second team honors with a 13th place finish at the NE10 Championships as the Skyhawks won the team title as well.
Boyd earns NE10 Track Rookie of the Week accolades for the first time after helping guide two Stonehill relays to All-New England performances over the weekend. He ran the 400-meter leg of Stonehill's DMR, which earned NE10 Relay of the Week, and ran the lead leg of the 4x400-meter relay that finished eighth in a season-best 3:21.02 – third-fastest in the NE10 this winter.
Boyd earns NE10 Track Rookie of the Week honors for the first time. (PHOTO BY SportsPix) |
Boyd, who has been part of two NE10 Relay of the Week teams this season, has competed in three sprint disciplines in his freshman season in addition to the DMR and 4x400. He ran a season-best 50.55-seconds for a second place finish in the 400-meter dash at the season-opening UMass Boston Indoor Open, a 22.68-second 200-meter dash to finish 12th at the Harvard Beantown Challenge, when he also ran the 60-meter dash in 7.23-seconds. His 400-meter time ranks 13th in the East Region and 11th in the NE10.
Taxter and Boyd were both part of Stonehill's 4000-meter DMR which finished second to UConn in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 9:51.49 – tops in the NE10 this season. Joining Taxter and Boyd on the relay were juniors Alexander Demeule (Merrimac, Massachusetts/Pentucket Regional) and Stephen Vercollone (Pembroke, Massachusetts/Pembroke). Demeule ran the opening 1200-meter leg in 3:02.8, before Boyd completed the 400-meter leg in 49.6-seconds, with Vercollone taking the baton to run the 800-meter leg in 1:51.8, before Taxter completed the mile anchor leg in 4:07.1.
Stonehill's DMR posted an All-New England finish for the seventh-straight year, with the second place finish its highest since an identical second place performance in 2012. Taxter's unofficial mile split was under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard, while Vercollone's unofficial 800-meter split was under school-record pace.
It marks the third time this season Stonehill has earned NE10 Relay of the Week honors, the second time with its DMR. The Skyhawks DMR, which included Demeule, Vercollone and Taxter, also earned the honors on January 24, after a first place finish at the Sorlien Invitational at URI. Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay from the UMass Boston Winter Open, that included Boyd, collected the honors on December 6,
Stonehill is back in action with a pair of events at the University of Rhode Island's Coaches' Tribute Meet on Friday as well as the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by Boston University, on Saturday.
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