MEDFORD, Mass. - The Worcester State men's track & field team came off the winter intersession period with several very strong performances at the Tufts Invitational #1.
Leading the way was senior captain Sam Weeks (Methuen, Mass.) in the 35lb weight throw and shot put. He started the day off competing in the 35lb weight with a PR toss of 16.41M/ 53-10.5 to win the event and then went on to win the shot put with a stellar toss of 15.91m /52-2.5 for his second win and PR of the day. His marks rank him among the national leaders putting him 7th in the shot put and 12th in the weight throw nationally in NCAA DIII rankings. He is also ranked #1 in the shot put and #2 in the weight in DIII New England rankings.
Several other Lancers made the finals in the throwing events including Freshman Eddy Acuna (Newton, Mass.) who threw 14.57m for 6th place overall and Jacob Roumanos (Whitman, Mass.) who had an indoor shot put PR with a toss of 13.86m for 7th place overall and a DIII New England qualifier. Weeks and Acuna have already qualified previously for both DIII and All Division New England's. In the weight, sophomore Marcus Vieira (Peabody, Mass.) finished with a toss of 15.93m, good for fourth overall in the event. Marcus presently ranks 13th nationally in that event and has already qualified for the DIII and All Division New England Championships.
Freshman Justin Lewis (Mansfield, Mass.) also had a strong day finishing first in the high jump and moving him into a tie for 5th in the national DIII NCAA rankings with a leap of 2.05m/6-8.75. He is ranked in a tie for 3rd on the DIII New England list. In addition he triple jumped 12.77m to finish in second in that event.
Freshman Jalil Gibson (Lynn, Mass.) made the finals in the 60m dash with a time of 7.12 in the trials and again in the finals to take fourth overall and qualified for the DIII New England with that PR. He also ran a 23.57 in the 200m.
Freshman Edward Boamah (Worcester, Mass.) ran his first collegiate meet and finished in second place for the 400m with a time of 52.41 to start his college career. In the 600m, junior Marc George (Framingham, Mass.) also took second place honors with a time of 1:25.04 to qualify and place him 10th in the DIII New England rankings for that event. In a strategic 800m race, junior Jeffrey Davis (Old Lyme, Conn.) finished third overall.
Sophomore Scott Page (Baldwinville, Mass.) and freshman Kyle Cotnoir (Blackstone, Mass.) competed in the hurdles to finish second and third respectively. Page, whose primary event is the pole vault, was second overall in that event and was the first collegiate finisher in the competition, vaulting 3.95m. Teammate Brett Robinson (Westborough, Mass.) finished right behind Page in third with a vault of 3.80m. Robinson later went on to run the 400 and 200m races.
"The guys overall came back to competition in decent shape," commented head coach Al Halper. "Many committed themselves to getting in meaningful workouts during the holidays and it showed today for those guys. Others have some work to do. They need to get back into a consistent routine and put in the time and effort to insure the performance level will improve quickly though this month and next."
Halper concluded, "I am confident that we will be ready as we get near championship season. The potential for this squad is extremely high. Every week we see some special efforts and a number of positive surprises. It has been an exciting season so far."
The Lancers will compete next week at Springfield College on Saturday, January 21, 2017.