BULLDOGS RECORD STRONG OUTING IN BROWN INVITATIONAL SATURDAY; MEN TAKE FOURTH, WOMEN SEVENTH
April 10, 2010
BULLDOGS RECORD STRONG OUTING IN BROWN INVITATIONAL SATURDAY; MEN TAKE FOURTH, WOMEN SEVENTH
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men’s and women’s track and field teams saw strong performances from many of their members Saturday at the Brown Outdoor Invitational, highlighted by fourth- and seventh-place finishes for the teams, respectively.
Tom O’Connor (Westwood, Mass.) led the Bulldogs to a fourth-place team finish in the six-team field with another stellar day on the track, where the junior earned a pair of top-3 finishes, including taking first place in the 200-meter dash in a time of 22.44. The time ties his own season mark for the best in the event of the 2010 season.
O’Connor doubled his hardware in the 400-meter dash, crossing the finish line in second place with a time of 49.57, just over a second behind the winner. That time falls just .03 seconds shy of qualifying for the New England Championships but is also a season-best in the 400m by any Bulldog on the year.
Rookie Joe Pugliano (West Springfield, Mass.) took top-10 finishes in both of O’Connor’s events, taking ninth in the 200m and earning his best mark of the day in the 400m with an eighth-place finish (51.66). Sophomore Ben Polichronopoulos (South Berwick, Maine) gave the Bulldogs a trio of top-10 finishes in the 400-meter dash, coming in 10th with a time of 52.59.
Sophomore Anthony Monteiro (Leominster, Mass.) placed in the top-10 in both the 110-meter and the 400-meter hurdles, taking his best finish of the day in the former, finishing fourth in a time of 16.66 after finishing third in the prelims. Monteiro took ninth in the 400m hurdles in 58.53, six places behind teammate Andrew Fitzgerald (New Hartford, Conn.), whose third-place finish in the event came in at a season-best 55.35 seconds and qualifies the junior for the New England Championships in May. Fitzgerald would also take fifth in the long jump with a hop of 6.39 meters, another team-best on the 2010 campaign.
The Bulldog men took two more third-place finishes on the day, first with a 13.03-meter triple jump from Chris Brida (Southampton, Mass.) and then with a time of 3:25.82 in the 4x400-meter relay.
Bryant would finish with 47 points on a men’s side that was won by host Brown with a score of 181.
On the women’s side, the Bryant 4x100-meter relay team would earn the best finish of the day for the team, taking third in a time of 52.79 – the fastest time for the Bulldog women so far this season.
A pair of high jumpers in sophomore Joanna Chanaj (Peabody, Mass.) and senior Mel Farbotko (Brookline, N.H.) split sixth-place honors with identical jumps of 1.50 meters for the Bulldog women’s only other top-10 finishes.
Freshman Amanda Dilley (Melbourne, Fla.) earned 11th in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 18.74, just edging out teammate Rebecca Ptak (Rocky Hill, Conn.), who earned a 13th-place finish in the same event in 20.43 seconds.
The Bryant women scored 11 points in the outing with host Brown also taking the top team spot on the women’s side with 225 points.
The Bryant track and field teams return to action Saturday, April 17 at the Holy Cross Invitational.