Complete ResultsMedford, Mass. - April 2, 2011 - The Springfield College men’s track and field team fared well in its second outdoor meet of the Spring, placing second at the Snowflake Classic hosted by Tufts University.
The hosts won the event, totaling 167 points for the first place finish. The Pride placed second with 145 points, while Harvard (78 points), Dartmouth (65), and Merrimack (64) rounded out the top-five in the twelve-team event.
Springfield standout Nickel Hay led the Pride scoring with two individual event wins and one relay victory. Hay took the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.24 seconds. He followed that up with a victory in the 200 meter dash, clocking in at 22.67 seconds. In the 4x100 meter relay, Hay teamed up with Tom Brognano, Kyle Brown, and Garrett Sharnick for first place with a time of 42.75 seconds.
Other Pride runners to see the winner’s circle included Kevin Coyle in the 400 meter event. Coyle’s time of 50.17 seconds in the final heat edged out Tufts runner Graham Beutler for first place. In the 5000 meter run, Springfield snagged the top two spots with great performances by Stephen Creamer and Zach Pietras. Creamer crossed the finish line in 15:32.43 and Pietras came in right behind him at 15:38.57. Springfield’s final win in the running events came in the 4x400 meter relay, as the group of Alex Harrington, Sean Nunan, Oscar Esposito, and Fernando Beltran teamed up for a time of 3:31.99 and first place.
Others that ran well for the Pride were Brown and Sharnick in the 200 meter dash. Brown clocked in at 23.80 for fifth place and Sharnick finished in sixth at 23.82. In the 800 meter Greg Coleman scored for Springfield with a time of 2:02.59, good for seventh, while in the 10,000 meters, Jacob Brewer took fifth at 33:48.60. Two hurdlers also scored in the 110 meter and 400 meter hurdle events, as Sam Weiss used a time of 16.94 to grab sixth place in the 110 meters and Dylan Peterson took fourth in the 400 meters at 1:02.30.
In the field events, Coyle was the Pride headliner. Coyle, the NCAA Division III Champion for the indoor long jump event, continued his winning ways with first place in the outdoor meet’s long jump event. Coyle flew 7.24 meters in the finals to get the win. Ryan Ux also snagged a first place finish, winning the javelin throw. Ux’s throw of 54.48 meters was almost four meters ahead of the closest competitor. He was joined in the scoring department by teammates Parker Ashton-Youngs in sixth with at throw of 47.36 meters and Sean Pennington in seventh at 44.64 meters.
In the high jump, the trio of Kevin Ross, Emil Occhiboi, and William Ferguson took the fourth, fifth, and sixth places with jumps of 1.81 meters. In the pole vault, Springfield saw two scorers, with Brandon Gruver placing fifth at 3.4 meters and Padraic Smith taking seventh at 3.1 meters. Vijay Saxena would go on to finish seventh in the triple jump at 11.88 meters and Michael Cataldo (sixth place) and Nick Hogan (eighth place) continued the Pride scoring with discus throws of 37.59 meters and 35.15 meters, respectively. Hogan also scored in the hammer throw, placing seventh with a toss of 41.76 meters. Joe Bonano finished the scoring for the Pride with a fifth place finish in the shot put at 13.42 meters.
The Pride will be home next Saturday to host Middlebury and Bowdoin at Blake Track on Springfield’s campus.
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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