Worcester, MA --- Senior Jon Parrella (Wilmington, MA) along with sophomore teammates Duy Truong (Worcester, MA/Doherty), Stephen Gannon (Foxboro, MA) and Matthew Alley (Milford, MA) teamed for a second-place and school-record time of 42.28 in the 4x100 meter relay to help propel the Worcester State men's outdoor track and field team to third place at the Holy Cross Quad meet this afternoon.
URI won the meet with 208 points followed by UNH (140) and the Lancers (113) edged out the hosting Crusaders (102) for third overall.
With the fair weather on their side, the team of Truong, Parrella, Gannon and Alley eclipsed the mark from the MASCAC/Alliance meet that won the title one year ago (42.31).
Truong also stamped his ticket to the Open New England Championships in the 110 meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 15.24 in second. Parrella was also the runner-up in the 200 (22.37) while Alley clocked third in the 100 (11.14) with an Open New England time.
In the high jump, junior Andrew Johnson (Thompson, CT) cleared third (6-6/1.98m) and sophomore Daniel Ross (Foxboro, MA) notched fifth (6-4/1.93m) as both qualified for the ECAC Division III Championships. Johnson nearly went over 6-8 for the first-time this season, but the pole jiggled loose after he landed on the mat.
Junior Matthew Begley (E. Bridgewater, MA) had a toss of sixth in the hammer (48.53m/159-2.50) to stamp his ticket to the ECACs and sophomore Parris Nathan (Randolph, MA) hit a Division III New England standard in the shot put (13.46m/44-2).
Freshman Dana Perry (Mendon, MA) was second in the triple jump (12.20m/40-0.25) and sixth in the long jump (5.82m/19-1). Senior Andrew Garcia (Brea, CA) was fourth in the pole vault and junior Steve Fleming (Ludlow, MA) was right behind in fifth with the same mark (3.90m/12-9.50).
Freshman James Brodeur (Milford, MA) was fourth (50.34m/165-2) in the javelin and sophomore Mario De Jesus (Lawrence, MA) chipped in with fifth (49.08m/161-0.25) as freshman Al Mandragouras (Newbury, MA) placed fifth in the discus (40.34m/132-4).
In the 200, Gannon was fifth (22.62) and Alley took ninth (23.03) as sophomore Jason Sliwoski (Leicester, MA) put up sixth in the 110 meter hurdles (16.01) followed by sophomore Teddy Ferreira (Mansfield, MA), who finished eighth in the hurdles (17.09).
The 800 meter runners capitalized on a strong field to get ready for the 4x800 relay this weekend as senior Tim Mazeika (Millbury, MA), classmate Kerry Sabanty (Stoughton, MA), junior Connor O'Neill (Dudley, MA) and sophomore Patrick Bova (Princeton, MA) each notched eighth (1:58.63), 10th (1:58.95), 15th (2:00.66) and 18th (2:02.02), respectively.
The Lancers look to build on their times today with some solid performances on Saturday in the MASCAC/Alliance Championships hosted by Bridgewater State.