MIDDLETOWN, CONN. - First-year competitor Conrad Kalinowski (London, England) broke his own school record in the pole vault and qualified for the New England Division III Championships in the process, leading the Regis College men's track and field team at the Wesleyan Indoor Invitational Saturday at the Bacon Field House.
Kalinowski exhibited a flair for the dramatic, needing all three attempts before clearing the bar at both four meters and the eventual event-winning mark of 4.15 meters (13' 7.25"), breaking the previous school record he established two weeks ago by two inches and qualifying for the New England Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships at the end of February.
Riley Stogsdill (San Diego, Calif.) won the 400 meter dash in 54.21 seconds, a half-second faster than his time in the same event last week. Chris Margiatto (Suffield, Conn.) finished in second place overall with a time of 55.75 seconds, plus he ran the second leg of the fifth-place 4x400 meter relay squad, joining Bryce Toumayan-Miller (Natick, Mass.), Benjamin Happenny (Woonsocket, R.I.), and Zach Sigman (Buffalo, N.Y.) to post an overall time of 3:58.46.
It was a busy day for Happenny, as he finished second in the 3000 meter run in 10:35.80 and sixth in the 1000 meter run with a collegiate-best time of 2:46.43. Sigman finished seventh overall in the 800 meter run in 2:17.18, while Toumayan-Miller placed 12th overall in the 200 meter dash in 25.03 seconds, behind Zachary Olayiwole (Marlborough, Mass.) in sixth place in 24.34 seconds and Stogsdill in eighth place in 24.52 seconds.
Aiden Charles (Lowell, Mass.) qualified for the finals of the 60 meter hurdles after posting a time of 9.89 seconds in the preliminaries, and then he finished fourth in the finals in 9.68 seconds. Charles also led the Pride in the throwing events, finishing fifth overall in the weight throw with a collegiate-best mark of 12.11 meters (39' 8.75") and 14th in the shot put at 9.84 meters (32' 3.5").
Justin Thuotte (Lebanon, Conn.) also competed throughout the day, finishing seventh in the long jump at 5.93 meters (19' 5.5"), eighth in the triple jump with a mark of 12.23 meters (40' 1.5"), and ninth in the preliminaries of the 60 meter dash at 7.65 seconds, just ahead of Olayiwole at 7.70 seconds.
The Regis College track and field team will now prepare for the 2023 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships, once again taking place at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center Sunday, Feb. 12, starting at 11 a.m.