TRACK & FIELD TEAMS ENJOY SUCCESSFUL DAY AT HOLY CROSS; MEN PLACE SECOND OVERALL

April 19, 2009

BRYANT TRACK SHINES AT HOLY CROSS

Bulldog Men Take Home Second Place

MEN'S RESULTS /  WOMEN'S RESULTS

WORCESTER, MA – Several Bryant University track & field athletes posted personal and season-best marks as the Bulldogs enjoyed yet another successful weekend.  Competing at the Holy Cross Quad Meet, the women finished seventh while the men, behind three first-place finishes took home second in the team standings.

A week after an abbreviated meet at Brown University that was saw several events cancelled due to an icy-rain, the Bulldogs took advantage or more spring-like temperatures to turn in one of the best overall performances of the season.

The men finished second to Holy Cross, but came out on top of Central Connecticut, Maine, Colgate, AIC, Stonehill and Hartford. Plus, with the New England Championships looming on the horizon in a few weeks, Saturday’s performance by the Bulldogs is a good sign of things to come down the stretch.

Junior Alex Engel captured first-place honors with a personal-best mark of 48.29 seconds in the men’s 400 meters.  Engel, in posting the team’s best mark of the year in the event, was not far off from Hafiz Greigre’s 400m school record of 48.31.  Teammate Mike DiBella also ran a PR with a fourth-place time of 49.67.

Thomas O’Connor also placed first in the 200 meters, finishing in a personal-best time of 22.20 seconds.  The mark also meets New England Championship qualifying standards.  Engel took seventh in a time of 22.85.  O’Connor would also earn a top-10 finish in the 100 meters, finishing fifth in 11.51 seconds.

Andrew Fitzgerald ran a season-best 56.78 in the 400 meters, finishing second overall while teammate Zach Perron was third (57.06).  Other highlights include John Mitton’s fifth-place finish in the 800 meters in 1:55.99, just shy of the New England standard of 1:54, and freshman Drew Clark’s runner-up finish in the 1500m, blistering his personal best of 4:02 with a great time of 3 minutes, 59.87 seconds.    The school record is 3:57.

The men’s 4x400 meter relay team took home first-place with a best time of 3:20.01.

The women also post several outstanding marks in the meet.  Freshman Kim Warner enjoyed her best jump of the season in the long jump.  Warner placed sixth in the event with a new PR of 16 feet, 7 inches – well ahead of her previous best of 15-2.

Casey Fenwick turned in Bryant’s best time this season in the 1500 meters as the senior placed 12th overall in 5:00.60. Classmate Justine Douvadjian also posted the team’s best mark in the 400 meters this season with an eighth-place finish in 1:01.74.  Katie Pelletier was 10th in a new personal-best time of 1:02:57.

In the sprints, Sherika Nicholas turned in the team’s best time in the 100 meters at 13.59, good enough for 13th overall while also running a season-best time in the 200 meters as well at 28.17.

The team’s will compete at the Brown Springtime Invitational next Saturday.