Blue Devils Take Wins at Joe Donahue Invitational on Friday

Five Central Connecticut men's indoor track and field athletes won events at the Joe Donahue Invitational on Friday, Jan. 19 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston, MA. The Blue Devils faced talents from the meet's host, Northeastern, Hartford and UMass Amherst.

Junior Akiel Smith won the 60 meter dash with a speedy time of 6.99 seconds to lead CCSU. Freshman Darius Wise ran a personal best time of 7.22 seconds in the event.

Distance specialist, senior Austin Trainor won the 1,000 meter run with an NEIAAA qualifying time of 2:28.79. Sophomore Julio Arredondo finished the event in 2:36.73, good for fifth place.

First place of the 3,000 meter run belonged to CCSU junior Alex Norstrom who ran a time of 8:39.86 to win. Classmate Kyle Welch also ran in the event for the first time in his career, finishing at 9:51.04.

Sophomore Amaziah Gadson won the high jump with a top leap of 1.93 meters. Sophomore Kevorni Welsh took fifth in the event with a jump of 1.83 meters. Rookie Jayson Williams and senior Sam Borecki time for seventh place with a mark of 1.83 meters.

Borecki recorded a new career record pole vault height of 4.95 meters to win the event on Friday for CCSU while qualifying for the IC4A's. Junior Jeremy Hopwood tied his best jump of 4.35 meters in seventh place and rookie Gordon Perrett also vaulted 3.75 meters, a new season best mark.

Rookie Miles Fye-Moore placed sixth for Central in the 200 meter dash with a season best time of 22.88 seconds. Sophomore Evan Walker clocked in at a personal best time of 22.93 seconds to take eighth place and senior Tyler Latham finished right behind the underclassman in ninth place with a time of 22.95 seconds.

Five other Blue Devils finished outside of the top-10 in the popular 200 meter dash. Sophomore Jack St. Clair came in 15^th with a time of 23.21 seconds. Juniors Julio Gil-Martinez (23.73s) ran a personal best time in 22^nd place and Mike Lang was next with a time of 23.80 seconds. Rounding out the sprinters for CCSU was junior Jero Sneh (23.81s) and rookie Trevor Glymph (24.51s).

Three CCSU runners, sophomore Roberto Piotto and freshmen David Kerns and Christopher Dency, competed in the mile. Piotto paved the way with a fourth place time of 4:28.12. Kerns ran a personal best 4:40.40 and Dency also ran a fastest time of 4:43.98.

St. Clair rang in a fourth place finish in the long jump with a mark of 6.52 meters. Welsh set a personal record in the event of 6.48 meters to take seventh place. Sophomore Marquis Ward jumped 6.22 meters and sophomore Jarred Creech was right behind with a mark of 6.17 meters. Two sophomores Evan Walker and Gadson rounded out the Blue Devil troops with jumps of 6.12 meters and 5.88 meters, respectively.

Glymph led two other CCSU triple jumpers with a big personal best jump of 13.30 meters. Gadson was next in the standings in fourth place (12.88m) and Creech came in fifth (12.50m).

Freshman Marcris Webb paced CCSU in the 400 meter dash with a season best run of 53.68 seconds to take ninth place.

The men's 4x400 relay team of Latham, St. Clair, junior Matt Baum and Borecki placed third overall with a time of 3:27.57. Trainor, Langual, Gill and Arrendono completed the distance medley relay team with 10:38.13 taking second to Northeastern.

Rookie Jon Gill and junior Adonys Langual ran for CCSU in the 500 meter run. Gill led the way in sixth place with a season best time of 1:06.95 and Langual also snagged a personal record of 1:08.59.

Freshman Jack Godfrey threw for 12.37 meters to take sixth place in the shot put, and sophomore Nana Kissi took seventh with a throw of 11.94 meters. Kissi threw a collegiate best 12.58 meters in the weight throw and Godfrey also surpassed his best mark of 9.97 meters.

The Blue Devils will compete next Friday and Saturday, January 26-27 back in Boston, MA for the John Thomas Terrier Classic.