BOSTON, February 25, 2005 - Springfield College junior Alex Kampersal (Natick, Mass.) placed fourth in the shot put competition with a heave of 52’ 8 ¼” at the Open New England Championships to earn All-New England honors and lead the Pride to an 18th-place finish out of 43 competing teams in the meet hosted by Boston University.
The meet featured competition from Division I, II and III. The University of Connecticut won the meet with 161.5 points and was followed by: Southern Connecticut State (91), URI (85.50), UMass Lowell (64), Northeastern (37.50), UMass Amherst (32.50), Williams (31) UNH (29.50), Providence (28), MIT (28), Tufts (21), University of Maine (20), Quinnipiac (18), Stonehill (14), Bryant (14), Wheaton (12), Coast Guard (10), Springfield (8.50), Bentley (8), Bates (8), Trinity (7), Brandeis (6), UMass Dartmouth (6), Sacred Heart (6), Westfield State (5), Amherst (5), Colby (5), Vermont (5), BU (3), Eastern Connecticut State (3), Worcester State (3), Wesleyan (2), and Keene State (1).
Pride junior Tetsuji Kambera (Osaka, Japan) had a standout performance, finishing in fifth place overall in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 14:52.4 as he too was honored as an All-New England athlete at the meet. In the 1,000-meter race, freshman Mike Griffin (Scarborough, Maine) ran to the second fastest time in SC history, just missing a scoring opportunity as he finished in ninth place in the finals with a time of 2:30.37.
In the jumping events, sophomore Nick DeCelle (Mechanicville, N.Y.), placed 16th in the long jump (20' 4 ¼”), and 14th in the triple jump (41’ 5 ¼”).
SC will next compete on Friday, March 3, at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
Ken Klatka, just inducted into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame in October, 2011, enters his 37th season as head coach of the men’s track and field program in 2012-2013. He ranks among the nation’s most successful coaches, with an overall record of 442 wins, 144 losses, and two ties for an impressive .753 winning percentage. Under his direction, Kevin Coyle '12 won the 2011 Division III Indoor Long Jump National Championship.
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