BOSTON - The Worcester State men's track & field team unleashed a number of impressive performances at the Tufts Stampede Invitational Meet this Saturday at the Gatcher Field House.
"This week marked the continuation of improvements for those on the team who have been doing well all along and saw the contribution of a few new faces this season," commented head coach Al Halper.
Senior captain Sam Weeks (Methuen, Mass.) once again won the shot put with another personal record of 16.15m. The throw puts him at number one in DIII New England's and Alliance conference rankings. Weeks is 12th ranked on the national list as well. In addition, freshman Eddy Acuna (Newton, Mass.) finish third in the shot put (14.62m)
Weeks continued to excel in the 35lb weight throw, taking 4th place with a toss of 15.74m, one place behind teammate Marcus Vieira (Peabody, Mass.), who finished in third place with a toss of 15.79m in the event.
Markiesh Harmon (Leominster, Mass.) also continued his winning ways with a first place jump in the Long Jump leaping 6.52m for the win. Harmon also placed in the high jump at 1.88m for a 5th place finish in the vertical jump event. In the triple jump newcomer Colbert Agyei (Worcester, Mass.) leaped 12.42m to finish 6th in his first collegiate triple jump.
Both Scott Page (Baldwinville, Mass.) and Brett Robinson (Westborough, Mass.) continued to be consistent in the pole vault with both athletes clearing 3.95m in the event.
The running events were anointed with the return of senior captain Jared Barros (Taunton, Mass.), who has been sidelined for some time with various injury issues. He promptly took a second in the 60m dash running 7.04 in the trials and 7.05 in the final. He then went on to run a 22.89 in the 200m to win that event. His times in the 60m and 200m puts him 5th and 12th respectively in the DIII New England regional rankings as he qualified in both events for the post season. Barros not only qualified for DIII New England's, but also qualified for All New England's in both events.
Freshman Edward Boamah (Worcester, Mass.) impressed again this week with a 51.99 in the 400m for third place and came back with a 23.56 in the 60m to move up in the conference rankings. Also doing well in the 200m this week were freshmen Jalil Gibson ( 23.34-second fastest for WSU) Momodou Kabareh ( 23.77) and Thomas Anderson (23.92).
In the 600m, Marc George (Framingham, Mass.) finished in 1:24.05, off his school record set last week, but ran good enough for second place overall. Jeffrey Davis (Old Lyme, Conn.) finished fourth in the 800m in 2:01.55 after leading a good portion of the race, a solid race just the same.
Stated coach Halper after the meet, "The guys stepped it up today. We had a number of great performances that placed among the top finishers but we also had a majority of our guys move up on the conference ranking list in a number of events obtaining season and career PRs in the process. We talked as a team yesterday about upping the intensity when competing and the team responded last night and today. We started the weekend with a school record last night in the DMR at the BU Terrier Classic and today the positive results continued. Now we must keep it going into the championships."
The Worcester State men's track & field team will compete next weekend at the Wesleyan Invitational on February 4.