Worcester State Men’s Track and Field Highlights
“All Division” New England Championships -Day 2 - 3/1/08

The Worcester State College Men’s Team had another productive day on Day 2 at the “All Division” New England Championships held at Boston University. Freshman standout, Nate Starling improved his personal best in the 55m hurdles with a time of 7.83 to qualify for the finals.  Starling, the only freshman to make the finals, ran a time of 7.91 to finished 9^th overall in the event.

The 4 x 800 meter relay team did as expected and set a new school record in the event.  Three of four broke two minutes on their leg of the relay in setting a new standard of 8:01.25 in the event.  Bettering a mark that had lasted 31 years, Junior Chris Mancuso (1:58.6), junior Rob Lind (2:04.5), junior Forest Wilber (1:58.5) and senior Justin Snair(1:59.2) improved on the record of  8:06.0 (run as a 2 mile relay) and set back in 1971. The relay that finished 17^th overall / 5^th best in division 3 is now qualified for next week’s D3 ECAC Championship meet.

The 4 x 400m relay team also ran well, running their best time of the season with a 3:28.59 in the event. The team was composed of  junior Chris Mancuso(52.9), who had run a personal best in the 800 less than an hour earlier, freshman Andrew Thornhill (52.9), freshman RJ Stahelski (53.5), and junior Mark Johnson.  Johnson anchored the relay in a stellar time of 49.3 in making up significant ground on the field in Worcester State’s heat. The time, however, was a mere .05 short of the ECAC qualifying time for next week’s championships. The relay finished 21^st overall /9^th in division 3.

The Lancers have several individuals and the 4 x 800 relay qualified at this time for this competition and look forward to one more week of improved performances.  Nate Starling, who is close to the national qualifying times in both the 55m hurdles and the 55m dash will again attempt to meet those standards while Mark Johnson will try to approach the standard in the 400m dash and compete in the 200m and long jump. Distance ace Forest Wilber will run either the 5000m or 3000m race and go for another personal best this coming week.

Worcester State College Track and Field Highlights

At New England Championships – held at Boston University

2/29/08 Day 1

Worcester State College had two athletes involved in competition on Day 1 of the “All Division” New England Championships being held at Boston University. Freshman Nate Starling won his heat of the 55m hurdles in a stellar time of 7.85 to put him in the semi- finals on Saturday at 12:15PM. His time was a personal record and just .10 off the NCAA provisional qualifying standard for the up coming national championships. Nate also competed in the 55m dash, sprinting to a time of 6.65 despite a bad start stumbling out of the blocks.  Teammate, junior Mark Johnson, had a personal best in the 200m dash with a time of 22.42 to finish fourteenth overall in a very competitive field. He was the fourth best among division 3 athletes in the competition. Not yet fully recovered from the 200, Mark immediately had to report to the long jump where he jumped 6.28m/ 20’ 7.25” in the event.  Earlier, Johnson had competed in the 55m dash with a time of 6.68, despite also being victim to a bad start and stumbling out of the blocks. Saturday, on Day 2, will feature the 4 x 800m relay team of Chris Mancuso, Rob Lind, Forest Wilber and Justin Snair who will take a run at the school record in that event.  An hour later, Mancuso will return to lead off the 4 x 400 m relay team and join teammates Andrew Thornhill, RJ Stahelski, along with Mark Johnson as anchor leg trying to post their best time of the season and possibly qualify for the next week’s D3 ECAC meet at Harvard.