Men's Track Exceeds Expectations, Finishes Ninth at NE-10 Championships
Results
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Led by strong performances from graduate sprinters Ian Weaver (Brooklyn, Conn.) and Ethan Weaver (Brooklyn, Conn.), as well impressive outings from the relay teams, the Merrimack men's track & field team bested the pre-championship prognostications by running to a ninth-place finish at the Northeast-10 Championships held on the campus of American International this weekend in Springfield, Mass.
The Warriors earned 27 points to finish ninth in the 11-team field, ahead of 10th-place Adelphi (24 points) and 11th-place Assumption (13). Matching identical ninth-place finishes from both 2011 and 2012, the Warriors managed to finish one slot higher than originally anticipated in the Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll.
Southern Connecticut State took the team title with 228 points, more than 60 points ahead of runner-up UMass Lowell (167), while Stonehill placed third (114).
For the men, it was the short- and mid-distance sprinters that buoyed the Warriors all weekend long, garnering the majority of their point totals in those respective events.
Freshman Denzel Livingston (Billerica, Mass.) added another impressive weekend to a phenomenal rookie season by placing fifth in the 100m dash with a time of 11.19 seconds. Those efforts were enough to garner four team points. Behind him, both Ian and Ethan Weaver finished and seventh and eighth, respectively, in 11.80 and 11.88 seconds to account for another three team points.
Moving to mid-distance sprints, Ian Weaver picked up another team point with a seventh-place fin ish in the 400m dash. The graduate student posted a sub-50 time of 49.41 seconds to aid the Navy and Gold on the team leader boards.
Moving to the relay events, the quartet of Livingston, both Weavers and sophomore Anthony Arcari (Tewksbury, Mass.) nearly combined to earn the right as the conference's best 4x100m relay team. The four finished in second with a time of 42.61 seconds, earning eight team points in the process.
They weren't the only relay team to garner success, as the distance 4x800m relay tandem of sophomores Sherif Ali (Cliffside Park, N.J.) and Luis Cruz (Lawrence, Mass.) and freshmen Daniel O'Flynn (Ipswich, Mass.), Nick Christensen (Peabody, Mass.) finished sixth in the event with a time of 7:55.11, earning three team points.
Finally, the Warriors picked up seven more combined points in field events. Ian Weaver finished sixth in the high jump with a distance of 1.88m while Livingston did likewise in the long jump (6.87m), as each performance warranted three more points. Finally, junior Anthony Baccini (Billerica, Mass.) garnered the remaining point with an eighth-place showing in the triple jump (13.42m).
The Warriors will turn their sights to the New England Championships next weekend. Those who qualified for the event will compete next Saturday, May 11, looking to bolster their chances for an individual qualifying chance for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships.
--
For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.
