Going for Gold
BRYANT TRACK & FIELD READY FOR NEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
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SMITHFIELD, R.I. – With a memorable and quite successful spring sports season coming down the home stretch, the Bryant University men's and women's track & field takes center stage this weekend as the Bulldogs head to West Long Branch, N.J. for the Northeast Conference Championships.
The timing couldn't be better as the Bulldogs are coming off a tremendous outing last week at the Stonehill Skyhawk Invitational, a pre-championship primer that saw several new best marks and a near school record set on the afternoon.
Hosted by Monmouth University, last year's men's and women's champions, the meet will kick off on Saturday, May 7 with the men's and women's 10,000 meters and continue through the day with preliminaries for many events and finals scheduled for the 4x800 meter relay, long jump, pole vault, high jump, discus and javelin.
The championships will conclude Sunday with the finals for 16 events ending with the men's and women's 4x400 meter relay at 3:55 pm.
A total of 12 teams will be competing on the women's side while the men's championship will feature 11 Northeast Conference teams competing. The Bryant women were 11th last year with the men finishing in a three-way tie for ninth.
The men will look to seniors Scott Twardowski (Rehoboth, Mass.) and Michael DiBella (Upper Saddle River, N.J), junior Anthony Monteiro (Leominster, Mass.) and sophomore Joseph Pugliano (West Springfield, Mass.) to score well at the meet.
Twardowski, who took home Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a Bulldog Award at Wednesday night's Awards Banquet, owns two top-10 times in the NEC this season. Earlier this season at Lowell, Twardowski turned in the team's top time in the 1,500m, and a new personal best, with a time of 3 minutes, 58.80 seconds. At last year's championships in Maryland, he placed eighth overall in the finals of the 1,500 meters in 4:01.14.
Last week at Stonehill, the senior turned in another personal best time in the 5,000 of 15:15.59 which stands tenth-best in the NEC this spring.
DiBella has been solid all spring and looks to help garner some points for the Bulldogs in the 400 meters where he owns the eighth-best time of 49.67 set last weekend in Easton, Mass. It was just shy of his personal best of 49.56 set two years ago at the New England Championships. Pugliano also ran well at the Stonehill meet, finishing with personal-best 50.08 in the 400m good enough for 13th in the conference.
Monteiro, the Bulldog Award recipient at the Award's Banquet, comes into the championship ranked eighth in the conference in the 110 meter hurdles after a school-record time of 15.48 to eclipse his old mark of 15.59 set a year ago.
Peter Alie (Stoneham, Mass.) leads the Bulldogs in the field events after a stellar performance at Stonehill last week. Alie nearly set a new school record in the men's high jump clearing 6-feet, 4-inches, well above his previous best mark of the year of six-feet. His performance ranks him eighth-best in the NEC so far this spring. Watch for Chris Brida (Southampton, Mass.) to make a run for the conference title in the men's triple jump. Brida holds the seventh-best mark in the conference during the outdoor season.
The women will look to senior standout Sherika Nicholas (East Patchogue, N.Y.), owner of the team's top times in both the 100 and 200 meters and sophomore Megan Robertson (Sewell, N.J.) who holds a top-20 time in the NEC in the 5,000 meters. Robertson was third last year in the women's 5,000 meters in 18:08.21
High jumper Joanna Chanaj (Peabody, Mass.) is currently 16th in the NEC clearing a season-best 4-feet, 10.25 inches while sophomore Allison Pavao (Swansea, Mass.) has the ninth-best mark in the women's javelin of 120-6 she set back in March at the Bryant Quad Meet.