By Nick Rosa
This past weekend, the CCSU men’s track team continued to show they are a force to be reckoned with. The team finished second overall with 114 team points at the UMass Minutemen Invitational on Saturday.
The Blue Devils second place finish left them behind the home team, UMass Amherst. The Minutemen took the invitational with 192.50 team points, while the Blue Devils came out 10 points ahead of the third place school, Stonehill.
There were many strong performances from the CCSU athletes at one of the team’s few scoring meets this outdoor season.
Junior Rashad Williams finished with two first place finishes in the shot put with a throw of 52-feet 8-inches and the discus with a toss of 145-feet 4-inches.
Sophomore Aaron Radden contributed two wins, in the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.83 seconds and the 200 meter dash in 21.43 seconds. Each top finish added 20 points
The combo of Anthony Gonsalves and Robert Weston went one and two in the 3000 meter steeple chase. Gonsalves ran a 9:43.10 and Weston ran a 10:00.09.
The other field events also helped out in earning the Blue Devils squad a fair share of points. Matt Berube finished third in the long jump with a leap of 20-feet 3.5-inches. High Jumpers Nick Trifone and Eric Rathbun went two and three with Trifone jumping 6-feet 4.25-inches and Rathbun jumping 6-feet 2.25-inches.
Others also added to the Blue Devils second place finish. Mike Waterbury finished third in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:55.59, Jeremy Schmid finished fourth in the 1500 meter run with a 4:00.67, Nick Lindblom finished third in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 55.72 seconds, and the 4-by-100 meter relay team finished second with a finishing time of 43.09 seconds.
The Blue Devils have maintained focus and look sharp so far this outdoor season. With times and performances only improving, the young team will return to action this Saturday at two different meets. With the majority of the team going to compete at Holy Cross, a small group will be heading to LSU to compete.
