Make it Four, Men's Track Crowned 2017 NEC Outdoor Champions

The Central Connecticut men's track and field team won their fourth consecutive conference title Sunday, May 7 at Mount St. Mary's scoring a total of 146.5 points en route to being named the 2017 Northeast Conference Outdoor Champions. The Blue Devils finished 12.5 points ahead of the second place LIU Brooklyn (134) followed by, Mount St. Mary's (124), SFU (112), Sacred Heart (106), Wagner (101.5), FDU (58), Bryant (22), and St. Francis NY (11).

FINAL RESULTS | FINAL MEDAL COUNT 

OFFICIAL NEC RECAP

Senior Joseph Gioielli ended his outdoor track career with an outstanding performance at the NEC finals. Gioielli was credited for 25 points himself across the 4x400m and 4x800m relay's, and the 800m and 1,500m runs. The veteran was awarded two silver medals in the 800m (1:53.95) and the 1,500m (3:59.53) on Sunday. Gioielli then anchored the 4x800m relay team to a bronze medal finish (7:53.13) and the 4x400m relay to place sixth is a season best time of 3:22.43.

Central produced an three individual champions, as well as a new 110m school record. Sophomore Edwin Alston raced across the finish line at 14.14s to snap his old previous best mark in program history of 14.17 set at the 2017 Hurricane Alumni Invitational. Junior Sam Borecki won the pole vault in an intense jump-off with a final mark, and new personal record of 4.50 meters.

Junior Tyler Latham won the javelin with a distance of 59.95 meters and also took fifth in the long jump with a personal best jump of 7.02 meters. Rounding out the top individual performances for CCSU was junior Austin Trainor, who followed through on his pre-championship number one seed to win the 3,000 meter steeplechase in a time of 9:30.22.

Rookie Jonathan Gill finished fourth overall with a time of 1:53.95 in the 800m run, and competed on the third place 4x800m relay along with Gioielli, senior Brendan Callahan, and Trainor. Gill was also a member of the sixth place 4x400m relay team with Gioielli, senior Zach Andrews, and Latham.

Callahan and sophomore Kyle Welch ran their fastest 3K steeple paced by Trainor, to finish fourth and ninth overall. Callahan ran a 9:45.34 and Welch crossed at 9:58.92.

The Blue Devils went third-five-seven in the 400m hurdles, led by sophomore Frankin Bartley Jr. who ran a personal best time of 55.18s to win bronze. Next in line was Quincy Sanchez in fifth with a time of 55.37, another PR, and Latham placed seventh.

Sanchez and Bartley also placed fifth and eighth with a pair of PR's for Central in the 110m hurdles, finishing in 14.66s and 15.15s respectively.

Senior Tyler Raymond scored five for Central in fourth place of the 5K, and Trainor ran an individual best time of 15:23.65 in eighth.

In the javelin, senior Jeremy Willis threw for 57.06 meters to win bronze, and senior James Frey placed fourth (53.74m). Freshman Marquis Ward led CCSU in the triple jump, coming in fourth with a personal best jump of 13.86m. Classmates, Welsh and Jarred Creech followed in sixth and seventh with PR's of 13.39m and 13.29m.

The CCSU men's track and field team will take its talents to the IC4A Championships at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, NJ on May 13-14 as well as at the New England Championships at Williams College in Williamstown, MA on Friday, May 12^th.