WESTON, Mass. - The Regis College track and field team hosted their lone home meet of the season on Sunday afternoon, and the Pride defended their house honorably with results that included four Division III New England worthy performances.
The Pride saw some of their best performances of the day come from freshman Matthew Owens (Boston, Mass.). Owens, who transitioned from football this fall and has only been sprinting for a year, put up a blistering 11.02 performance in the 100m. His time was fast enough to qualify for the DIII Open New England Championships.
For good measure, Owens returned in the 200m and established his earlier breakthrough performance as the new normal by running the event in a time of 22.87 seconds.
Vaulter Tori Rapsis (Nashua, N.H.) and hurdler Ray Grasso (Orange, Mass.) join Owens and the previously qualified Jeremy Israel (Boston, Mass.) on the list of qualifiers. While Rapsis won the pole vault with a clearance of 3.0m and punched herself a ticket to the DIII New England Championship for the third consecutive year, Grasso powered himself to a time of 57.46 in the 400m hurdles, eclipsing the required standard by nearly a full second.
The results for the rest of the Pride were also littered with big breakthroughs and personal bests.
Freshman Santi Strickland (Holbrook, Mass.) led the women sprinters with a time of 28.03 in the 200m and was joined in that event by classmate Diana Tran (Somerville, Mass.), who ran a personal best of 30.44, and senior Anyah Hernandez (Brookline, Mass.), who cruised to a 30.56 second performance.
Junior Sarah Schow (Northborough, Mass.) rounded out the women's team with a time of 6:05 in the 1500m, which concluded a season that saw her run personal bests in multiple events.
After Owens' third place finish in the 200m, Regis placed two more runners in the top eight of the event. Sophomores Jeremy Israel (Boston, Mass.) and Chandler Davies (Hartford, Conn.) finished the event in 23.08 seconds and 23.35 seconds, respectively.
In the same event, sophomore Carlos Romer (Boston, Mass.) and freshman DJ Joseph (Boston, Mass.) were able to shave significant time off their personal bests, while sophomore Alex Tran (Lawrence, Mass.) just missed his. Romer, Joseph, and Tran ran 24.66, 24.93, and 26.81, respectively.
Jonathan Paul (Medford, Mass.) and Owen McQuaid (Marlborough, Mass.) also peaked at the right time. The pair, who competed in the longer distance events, went home with season bests and personal bests.
Paul, coming back from injury just in time to get in his first outdoor race of the season, showed his promise in the 800m by coming in at a time of 2:15. McQuaid finished the 3000m in 10:31 despite seeing a first half mile by the leader that put the whole field into difficulty.
Not to be out done, the Pride's throws division had some of the most impressive results of the day. Sophomore Paul Gionfriddo (Burlington, Conn.) erupted in both the shot put and the discus throw. He raised his best mark in the shot put from 12.90m to 13.30m and crushed his old discus record with a 38.49m throw.
Newcomers to the events, Andy LaForest (Roslindale, Mass.) and Sinclair Fashaw-Braxton (Boston, Mass.) also threw further than ever before. Their new personal bests of 9.63m and 25.39m, and 9.54m and 25.34m, respectively, represented combined improvements of a remarkable near thirty five feet.
The Pride athletes that qualified for the New England DIII meet will be in action May 3-4 at Colby College. Otherwise, Regis runners will next be in action come fall when the Regis cross country team transitions from club to official NCAA level.
Please click here for the entire results of the meet.