Amherst, MA and Williamstown, MA --- A pair of school records and a New England title highlighted a strong weekend for the WPI men's track and field team, which competed at both the NEICAAA Outdoor Championships hosted by UMass Amherst and the Farley Inter-Regional Extravaganza at Williams.
 
At UMass, sophomore Daniel Kim (Orange, CT) broke a 16-year-old school record in the 400 hurdles, running 54.18 to finish sixth overall. The performance earned Kim All-New England honors and surpassed the previous school mark of 54.41 set by Joe Krasinskas '09 at the same meet in 2009.
 
The Engineers also claimed a New England title in the 4x100 relay, as Sam Manteria (Wilbraham, MA), Ethan Schnyer (Nashua, NH), Alex Cole (Weymouth, MA), and Tristan Andrew (Newtown, CT) raced to a winning time of 41.07 to top the field and be crowned All-New England champions.
 
Graduate-student Ben Trantanella (Westford, MA) earned All-New England honors in the 10,000 meters, placing sixth in 32:49.54. He was joined by senior Sean Corman (Waterford, CT) in eighth (33:16.47), with freshmen Jackson Hunt (Hopedale, MA) and Jackson Sobelman (Redding, CT) placing ninth and 11th, respectively.
 
In the javelin, senior Michael Neff (West Hartford, CT) placed eighth with a throw of 56.05m to earn All-New England distinction. Sophomore Matt Richards (Peabody, MA) was 12th (52.41m), followed by senior Lucas Anthony (Lincoln, MA) in 16th and senior Ben Furman (Groton, MA) in 19th.
 
Other top performances included Will Larsen (Chelmsford, MA), who placed 13th in the 400 hurdles in 55.18. Colin Britner (Hampton, CT), Drew O'Reilly (Syracuse, NY), and Jarrett Gulden (Walpole, ME) ran 15th, 16th, and 22nd in the steeplechase, respectively. Freshman Ajay Bellamy (Stratford, CT) set a personal best of 10.83 in the 100 to place 23rd. Also in the 400 hurdles, Theo Burrell (East Haddam, CT) and Colin Squier (Douglas, MA) went 22nd and 23rd.
 
As a team, WPI placed 15th out of 30 scoring programs at the NEICAAA Championships with 18 points. Host UMass won the meet with 119.5 points.
 
At the Williams-hosted Farley Inter-Regional Extravaganza Meet (FIRE), Graduate-student Avinash Bissoondial (Millbury, MA) used a strong final 600 meters to capture the 5,000 meters and catapult himself into 12th place in Division III in a school-record time of 14:09.22.  The time was a jaw-dropping 16 seconds quicker than the graduate student's previous school standard of 14:25.37 set three weeks ago at the Sean Collier Invitational in Cambridge and positions himself well for a spot in the NCAA Championships in two weeks.

Junior Brett Gerlach (Lock Haven, PA) took third in the high jump with a clearance of 1.97m. Freshman Ethan Ramirez (Burlington, CT) finished fourth in the decathlon with 5436 points and set a new personal best in the pole vault. Ramirez posted top-five finishes in the 100, 400, 1500, and discus within the decathlon.
 
Sophomore Ethan Anderson (North Haven, CT) placed sixth in the shot put (13.69m) and added a 10th-place finish in the discus (40.60m). Freshman Michael Zuo (Worcester, MA) took 10th in the shot put at 12.96m.
 
In the 800, junior Everett Mosher (Chester, VT) placed 15th in 1:53.95, and senior Brendan May (Rutland, MA) crossed 27th in 1:55.78, while in the distance running events, senior Ryan Fischer (Merrimack, NH) ran 9:33.10 in the steeplechase.
 
Up next, several Engineers will compete at the UMass Last Chance Meet on Thursday, May 15. NCAA Championship selections will be announced Friday, May 16 on NCAA.com. Nationals are set for May 22-24 in Geneva, OH, hosted by the North Coast Athletic Conference.
 
NEICAAA Results

Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza Meet Results