Men's Track Leads NEC's After Day One

The Central Connecticut men's track and field team posted 48.5 points on Saturday and lead the 2015 Northeast Conference Men's Track and Field Championship after the first day of competition.

The Blue Devils earned 23 points in the 10,000 meter run and posted the second, third, fourth and fifth place finishers in the event.  Sophomores Tyler Raymond (32:44.80) and Colin Sauter (32:49.58) finished second and third, and right behind were freshman Alex Norstrom (32:52.43) and sophomore Ryan Hertzog (32:52.53) in fourth and fifth place.

Sophomore Derek French and senior Patrick Hubbell each qualified for the 1,500 final to be run on Sunday.  French's time of 4:04.66 was the third best qualifying time on the day.  Hubbell ran 4:06.84.

Senior Jordan Watkins qualified second in the 110 meter hurdle prelims with a time of 14.81.  Freshman Tyler Latham was fifth in the same event with a qualifying time of 15.06.

Watkins also qualified in the 400 meter hurdles, as did classmate Ryan Budd, and sophomore Brian Beckwith.

Sophomore Zach Andrews qualified for the 400 meter final on Sunday.  He ran 46.36 and was the seventh fastest qualifying time on the day. 

Junior Malcolm Connor posted the second fastest qualifying time in the 800 meter prelims at 1:58.54 and qualified for Sunday's final.

The 4x800 meter relay team posted eight points with a second place finish in a time of 7:47.13.

Junior Dashawn Putman earned five points with a fourth place finish in the high jump.  He cleared 1.98 meters in his first attempt.  Freshman Joshua Walker-Thomas finished in sixth place in the same event with a jump of 1.95 meters, giving the Blue Devils another 2.5 points.

Senior Michael Ficorilli threw 14.17 meters in the shot put to finish in fifth place overall and give the Blue Devils four more points.  Sophomore Zach Torro threw 13.70 meters to earn an eighth place finish and a point.

Ficorilli added two points in the discus with a seventh place finish with a throw of 41.08 meters.  Freshman Peter Cotto threw 42.17 meters and picked up three points for the Blue Devils in the same event, finishing in sixth place.