MANCHESTER, N.H. - The Worcester State University men's and women's outdoor track & field teams both shined Saturday at the Penmen Relays, hosted by Southern New Hampshire University. The men's team finished in second place out of 23 competing teams, while the women finished in 10th out of 28.
Senior distance runner Mia Rogers (North Dighton, Mass.) was the only Lancer to win her event, taking the top spot in the 5,000 meter run on Saturday with a time of 18:19.40.
A school record was set in the mixed 4x400 meter relay, as the team of Abdulrazak Frederick (Shrewsbury, Mass.), Connor Ashe (East Longmeadow, Mass.), Rachel Stier (Mansfield, Mass.), and Brenda Thomas (Worcester, Mass.) combined to run a time of 3:51.76.
Stier and Thomas were joined by junior Abigail MacGregor (Salem, N.H.) and sophomore Bernice Mensah (Worcester, Mass.) in the women's 4x100 meter relay, which finished in fifth place at the meet with a time of 50.32. Thrower Stephanie McFadries (Burlington, Mass.) was also fifth in the javelin throw with a distance of 38.24 meters, while freshman Riley Sanderson (Leominster, Mass.) was close behind in ninth at 34.38 meters.
Mensah and MacGregor also competed in the 100 meter dash, finishing in eighth and ninth respectively at 12.78 and 12.99 seconds.
On the men's side, the throwers were the story of the day, led by a pair of second place finishes from Eddy Acuna (Newton, Mass.). The junior was the runner up in both the shot put, with a heave of 14.29 meters, and in the discus, at 44.12 meters. Senior Marcus Vieira (Peabody, Mass.) was second in the hammer throw at 53.01 meters, third in the discus at 40.64 meters, and sixth in the shotput at 13.76 meters. Anthony Christo (Peabody, Mass.) and Dariel Canela (Peabody, Mass.) were third and eighth respectively in the hammer with throws of 48.35 and 44.20 meters.
In other field events, senior Ryan Connolly (Braintree, Mass.) had a pair of top-five finishes, coming in fourth in the triple jump at 13.10 meters, and fifth in the high jump at 1.83 meters.
Moving to the track, freshman Drew Fottler (Chelmsford, Mass.) had an impressive showing in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, finishing in second place with a time of 9:55.17. Masato Terajima (Holden, Mass.) was fifth in the event at 10:24.14.
Sophomore John Ojukwu (Stow, Mass.) was the second place finisher in the 100 meter dash at 11.10 seconds, while he also finished in seventh in the 200 meter dash at 22.98 seconds. Frederick was fifth in the 110 hurdles at 15.61 seconds, and sixth in the 400 meter hurdles at 59.41 seconds.
The Lancers will close the regular season next weekend when they compete in the Elmer Swanson Classic at Wesleyan University.
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