Men's Track Shines Bright at UMass on Saturday, Take Home Three First Place Finishes
The Blue Devils won the 1,500, 400, and javelin events in their final regular season meet at UMass on Saturday.
The Central Connecticut men's track and field team placed fifth at the 2017 UMass Pre-Conference Meet with a total of 75.5 points on Saturday, April 29. Senior Joseph Gioielli and Austin Trainor highlighted a slue of top performances for the Blue Devils with a one-two punch finish in the 1,500 meter run. Gioielli ended with a time of 3:52.25 in first, and Trainor followed in the senior's footsteps in second place with a collegiate best time of 3:56.42, cutting 3.09 seconds off his previous fastest time (3:59.51) ran at the 2016 UMass Pre-Conference Meet.
Senior Jeremy Willis won the javelin with a throw of 59.17 meters, and veteran classmate James Frey grabbed fifth after throwing 54.50 meters. First place of the 400 meter dash belonged to senior Zach Andrews, who ran a collegiate outdoor best time of 49.19.
The Blue Devil 4x100 meter relay team consisting of sophomore Jero Sneh, sophomore Quincy Sanchez, Andrews, and junior Tyler Latham finished in second place with a season best time of 42.64.
Freshman Marquis Ward took bronze in the triple jump with a distance of 13.34 meters. Senior Kendall Walker leaped 6.46 meters in the long jump and finished in sixth place overall. Rookie Kevorni Welsh led CCSU in the high jump, also taking sixth place clearing a height of 1.86 meters.
In the 400 meter hurdles, Sanchez paced sophomore Franklin Bartley Jr. (56.13, eighth place) and Latham (56.63, ninth place), with a collegiate best time of 56.07 to come in sixth place in the final standings.
Sneh placed fifth in the 100 meter dash after sprinting a time of 11.25. Sophomore Julio Gil-Martinez ran a time of 11.48 to come in 10th place, and rookie Evan Walker finished in 11.61. Junior Will Ribeiro ran a time of 51.46 in the 400 meter dash to take eighth.
Freshman Julio Arredondo was the lone CCSU runner in the 800 meter run and crossed the finish line at 1:59.88. In the long jump, freshman Jack St. Clair jumped 6.39 meters, junior Mike Lang leaped 6.33 meters, and rookie Jarred Creech jumped 6.00m flat.
Junior Eric Davidson and senior Tyler Raymond also ran in the 1,500 meter run and finished in 4:11.29 and 4:11.84, respectively. Rookie J'Von Brown threw a distance of 13.05m in the shot put for CCSU, and 29.86m in the discus. The mult-faceted Latham also threw 33.58m in the discus.
The Central Connecticut men's track and field team will look to defend its title and make it four-straight titles in row with a road trip down to Emmitsburg, MD for the 2017 Northeast Conference Championships held at Mount St. Mary's on May 6-7.
