"The Worcester State men had a good day in competition and showed the team balance and depth this week," stated head coach Al Halper. "Despite competing well, coming off the winter break and returning to campus with a hard training week , not all the times and distances reflect the overall strength of the team."
Overall, as a team, the Lancers placed first in the 4x800 meter relay, qualifying for Division III New England's. The team was made up of Jeffrey Davis (Old Lyme, Conn.), Patrick Scheeler (Wakefield,Mass.), Devin Luce (Milford, Mass.), and Michael Ricci (Peabody, Mass.) for an overall effort of an 8:47.45 time. The team also qualified in the 4x400 meter relay for a team-time of 3:35.84. The team consisted of Marc George (Framingham, Mass.), Angel Martinez (Lawrence, Mass.), Christian Cedullo (Salem, Mass.), and Jared Barros (Taunton, Mass.).
Barros placed first in the 60m dash for a final time of 7.03, qualifying not only for Division III New England's, but also ECAC's. Benjamin Dussault (Assonet, Mass.) and Adam Scerra (Marlboro, Mass.) placed third and sixth places, respectively, in the 200m dash. Martinez was at the top for the Lancers in the 400m dash with a time of 54.47, standing at sixth place.
Mitchell Cupp (North Attleboro, Mass.) and Eric Sanford (Peabody, Mass.) paced the Lancers in the 600m run, coming in eight and ninth places, respectively. Davis led the team in the 800m run with a finish of fifth with a time of 2:04.77. Duy Truong (Worcester, Mass.) placed third in the finals of the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.69.
In the pole vault event, Scott Page (Baldwinville, Mass.) marked a 3.95m distance and placed third overall.
Markiesh Harmon (Leominster, Mass.) was a Division III New England qualifier in the men's high jump, posting a 1.88m distance at third place. Harmon also performed well in the men's long jump and triple jump, as he came in third and fifth places, respectively, with a distances of 6.61m and 12.11m. Ryan Connolly (Braintree, Mass.) placed sixth in the triple jump, while Tyler Nims (Ashburnham, Mass.) and Dana Perry (Mendon, Mass.) rounded up the scores for the Lancers.
Sam Weeks (Methuen, Mass.) shined in his shot put event, as he qualified for both Division III New England's and ECAC's. He placed second with a finals distance of 14.81m. Coming in sixth in the event was freshman Marcus Vieira (Peabody, Mass.) with 13.21m. The duo also remained atop of the men's weight throw with distances of 14.97m and 14.84m, respectively.
Coach Halper commented, "We had several additional post season qualifiers this week which is always good. In addition, a number of athletes improved again this week with another solid training week behind them and edged closer to qualifying standards they are trying to achieve over the next month or so. Others were a little sore from the hard training week and seemed a little flat. I was still impressed with the team efforts throughout the day. This squad has a great attitude and desire to be successful this year and is willing to do the work to get there."
Next week the Lancers men's team travels with the women to the Springfield Invitational on Saturday, January 23.