Men's Indoor Finishes Second at NEC Championships
The Central Connecticut men's indoor track and field team finished second at the 2015 Northeast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday afternoon.
The Central Connecticut men's indoor track and field team finished second at the 2015 Northeast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils finished with 120 total points, just 20 points behind the NEC Champion Blackbirds from Long Island University, to record the runner-up finish. The championships were held at the Prince George Sport's & Learning Complex in Landover, MD.
LIU won the indoor championships, their second-straight, edging the Blue Devils with 140 points. CCSU finished runner-up with 120 points, followed by Saint Francis (PA) with 86.5 points to round out the podium.
Wagner took fourth right behind SFPA with 84.5 points and Sacred Heart finished fifth logging 74 total points. Fairleigh Dickinson was sixth with 69 points, ahead of Mount St. Mary's in seventh with 53 points. Bryant and Saint Francis (NY) finished eighth and ninth respectively with 25 and 10 points.
Patrick Hubbell led the way for the Blue Devils at the championship meet and was named the 2015 NEC Indoor Most Valuable Performer after he picked up three gold medals on the day. The senior standout, who was also the 2014 NEC Cross Country Outstanding Performer, won the mile run, 3,000 meter run and the 5,000 meter run.
Hubbell cruised to victory in the one mile run with a time of 4:22.10. He won the 3,000 meter run with a time of 8:43.06, almost five seconds faster than the second place runner, and then capped off his MVP performance breaking the tape in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 15:09.85.
WATCH THE MEN'S ONE MILE RUN FINAL
Hubbell was joined by three other Blue Devils in the one mile run. In total, CCSU earned 18 points toward its team score in the event. Freshman Austin Trainor finished fourth and earned five points after he finished with a time of 4:24.99. Freshman Brendan Callahan finished sixth and earned three points with a time of 4:27.15 and sophomore Derek French finished ninth with a time of 4:30.42.
In the 60 meter dash final, sophomore Jevon Elmore finished on the podium with a third place finish and time of 6.93 to pick up six points toward the Blue Devils score.
Sophomore Kendall Walker earned two points for CCSU in the 200 meter dash finals, coming in at 22.68, good for a seventh place overall finish.
Central earned 10 points in the 400 meter dash finals after senior Jamal Fruster and sophomore Zach Andrews picked up third and fifth place respective finishes. Fruster recorded an ICAAAA automatic qualifying time of 49.18 in the event to take the bronze medal. Andrews crossed the finish line at 49.85 to earn the fifth place result.
In the 800 meter run, junior Malcolm Connor led the way for the Blue Devils with a third place finish and earned six points for the team. Connor finished with a time of 1:54.84, just two hundredths of a second behind the second place runner. Thomas Lupoli also ran in the 800 meter run finals for CCSU. The sophomore finished with a time 2:06.03 to earn a seventh place finish.
Senior hurdler Jordan Watkins had a runner-up performance in the 60 meter hurdle finals. Watkins took the silver with an automatic ICAAAA qualifying time of 8.22 and earned eight points for the Blue Devils' score. Freshman Tyler Latham picked up four more points for CCSU in the same event after the rookie crossed the finish line with a time of 8.44, good for fifth place.
In the high jump finals, junior Dashawn Putman cleared a new personal-best height of 2.07 meters on his first attempt to record a runner-up finish in the event. Putman's clearance picked up eight points and was also good to automatically qualify him for the ICAAAA championships in March. Freshman Malik Gordon also had an outstanding performance in the high jump. Gordon also cleared a new personal-best height of 1.98 meters on his first attempt to log a sixth place overall finish and three points for CCSU.
Michael Ficorilli led the way for the Blue Devils in the weight throw on Sunday. The senior launched the weight to 14.85 meters to record a sixth place finish and earn three points for the Blue Devils.
The Blue Devil 4x400 relay team of Andrews, Latham, Connor and Fruster recorded a runner-up finish with a time of 3:21.02 to earn eight points for CCSU's score in the final event of the meet.
The Blue Devils will return to action on March 1 at the Last Chance Meet at Boston University before the IC4A/ECAC Championships on March 7-8, also at Boston University.