Two Qualify for Division III New England Championship in Men’s Indoor Track & Field’s Opening Day at the UMass Boston Invitational

BOSTON, Mass. – The Worcester State Men's Indoor Track & Field team opened up their 2015-16 campaign Saturday (Dec. 5) with the UMass Boston Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Center. Two Worcester State student-athletes qualified for the Division III New England Championship - sophomore Markiesh Harmon (Leominster, Mass.) and senior Duy Truong (Worcester, Mass.).

Harmon placed second in the long jump (6.63m). With this marking, Harmon stands as a Division III New England Qualifier in the long jump event. On the afternoon, Harmon also placed 10^th in the high jump (1.85m), while standing at 13^th place in the triple jump.

Truong placed third in the 60m hurdles (8.92 finals/8.84 trials), notching a Division III New England Qualifier for the Lancers. Truong also came in 6^th for the Lancers in the long jump competition (6.18m).

"As in most years, we had a number of positive performances in which our athletes can begin to set some goals for the season," stated head coach Al Halper.

Junior Jared Barros (Taunton, Mass.) came in fifth place in the 200m dash (23.18). Freshman Andre Luciano came in right behind Barros in the 200m at 23.23. Sophomore Anthony Lawson (Randolph, Mass.) placed eight in the 200m event with a time of 23.30. Lawson also positioned himself at sixth place in the 400m dash (51.93).

Sophomore Jeffrey Davis (Old Lyme, Conn.) came in 10^th in the 800m run with a time of 2:04.63. Freshman Michael Ricci (Peabody, Mass.) rounded off the distance events in sixth place with a time of 2:45.48 for the 1000m.

Freshman Scott Page placed 7^th in the Pole Vault (3.95m). Freshman Anthony Christo placed 5^th in the shot put with a distance of 13.37m.

Worcester State took over the top 8 of the weight throw competition, as freshman Marcus Vieira came in 4^th (13.77m), senior Mike Piantedosi (Stow, Mass.) came in 5^th (13.73m), and Christo came in 7^th (13.07m). Piantedosi's 13.73m was a personal record as he looks to work upon that this season.

Halper said, "With exams and the intersession break in front of us, this meet gives the guys and opportunity to set a focal point to insure that they at minimum maintain the same level during the intersession or that they hopefully will build upon their present level and improve even more during the break from school. For those who were not pleased with their performances at the meet, the completion helped to identify their weaknesses and gave them things to work on while at home over the break."