Men's T&F Fourth After Day One of NEC Championships

The Central Connecticut men's indoor track and field team currently sits in fourth place with 24 points through four completed events after the first day of competition at the Northeast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Blue Devils are just nine points behind the first place team, Saint Francis (PA), who leads the way with 33 points. Sacred Heart is currently second with 29.5 points, followed by Fairleigh Dickinson in third place with 27 points.

Central is ahead of Wagner (21.5 points), LIU Brooklyn (11), and Bryant (5) and Mount St. Mary's (5) to round out the eight teams on the men's side of competition at the championships.

NEC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS - DAY 1

The four completed events on the first day of competition were the 3,000 meter run, pole vault, long jump and shot put.

Central shined in the 3,000 meter run, picking up 17 of its 33 total points in the event after recording first, fifth and sixth place individual finishes. The Blue Devils were led by senior Patrick Hubbell who won the race and earned 10 points after crossing the finish line with a time of 8:43.06.

Junior Matt Walker and sophomore Ryan Hertzog also placed in the top-10 to earn points for CCSU. Walker finished fifth with a time of 8:57.24 and Hertzog came in at 8:57.93 to finish right behind Walker in sixth.

Freshman Sam Borecki earned a bronze medal in the pole vault finals for the Blue Devils. The rookie, in his first ever championship meet, cleared a personal-best height of 4.50 meters on his fist attempt to earn six points for CCSU's score.

In the shot put, senior Michael Ficorilli threw a season-best distance of 14.32 meters, good for eight place and one point for the team score. Freshman Zach Torro finished right behind Ficorilli in ninth after he threw a personal-best distance of 14.15 meters.

The Blue Devils will look to make a move in the standings tomorrow as they qualified four athletes for the one mile run finals. The group was led by Hubbell who won the preliminaries with a time of 4:29.35. He will be joined in the finals by sophomore Derek French and freshmen Austin Trainor and Brendan Callahan. French qualified fourth with a time of 4:29.59 and Trainor and Callahan finished sixth and seventh respectively with times of 4:30.69 and 4:30.98.

Sophomore Jevon Elmore will move on to compete in the 60 meter dash finals on Sunday after qualifying third overall with a time of 6.92. His time was also an automatic qualifying time for the ICAAAA Championships in March.

In the 200 meter dash, sophomore Kendall Walker will represent CCSU in the finals after he qualified sixth with a time of 22.72.

Sophomore Zach Andrews and senior Jamal Fruster advanced to the finals in the 400 meter dash for the Blue Devils. Andrews recorded the second-fastest qualifying time, crossing the finish line at 50.45, and Fruster qualified fourth with a time of 50.93.

In the 800 meter run, sophomore Thomas Lupoli and junior Malcolm Connor will compete for CCSU on Sunday. Lupoli finished with the fourth fastest qualifying time at 1:59.03 and Malcolm crossed the finish line seventh at 1:59.80.

Senior Jordan Watkins and freshman Tyler Latham both advanced to tomorrow's 60 meter hurdles finals. Watkins and Latham finished fifth and sixth respectively in the preliminaries with qualifying times of 8.39 and 8.41.

The championships are being held at the Prince George County Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, MD and the second and final day of competition will begin tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Live results can be followed here and post-race interviews can be viewed on NECFrontRow.com.

Here is also a link to the second day starting lists.