Middlebury, VT --- Junior Warren Staver (Centreville, MD) won the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:07.55 to lead the WPI men's track & field team to a fourth-place showing at Saturday's Middlebury Invitational.
New England No. 13 Middlebury accumulated 163.50 points to earn the team crown. Atlantic region No. 3 RPI totaled 159 as nationally-ranked No. 19 Williams secured 139. WPI, who entered the meet as the second-ranked team in the region, was next with 85.50.
Staver also placed fifth in the 200-meter dash (23,50).
Freshman Fabian Gaziano (Wilbraham, MA), senior Nick Santangelo (Sudbury, MA), freshman Quinton Schimmel (Monroe Township, NJ) and sophomore Thomas Mackintosh (Ellington, CT) teamed up to clock a third-place 1:36.34 in the 200-meter relay. Gaziano finished fourth (8.90) as senior Nick Dalton (Woburn, MA) was fifth (9.11) and Schimmel was sixth (9.28) in the 60-meter hurdles. Santangelo clocked a 10th-place 53.90 in the 400-meter dash.
Sophomore Lucas Acaba (Groton, MA) tied for third in the pole vault with a clearance of 13-5.25 as junior Jack DeVine (Wilbraham, MA) guided three other point producers in the long jump with a third-place performance (20-0.25). Freshman Billy Kopellas (Needham, MA) checked in fifth (19-10.25), junior Brandon Hoghaug (Douglas, MA) tied for sixth (19-8.25) and sophomore Kevin Pawlak (Westford, MA) secured eighth (19-6.75). Senior Austin Scott (Waddington, NY) and freshman Tom Hanlon (Derry, NH) were third (4:21.66) and sixth (4:24.37) in the mile. Kopellas added a fifth-place distance of 39-1.25 in the triple jump and Scott was seventh in the 800-meter run (1:59.24).
Sophomore Ryan Wittenberg (Bedford, NH) crossed the finish line three spots ahead of Scott in the 800 with a time of 1:58.20. Junior Matt Bennett (Southington, CT) also finished fourth with a shove of 45-4.25 in the shot put.
Senior Brian D'Amore (Medfield, MA) took fifth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.25 as did classmate Daniel Mortimer (Shrewsbury, MA) in the 1,000-meter run (2:41.22).
Junior Jason Bugarin (Fitchburg, MA) posted an eighth-place 15:46.84 in the 5,000-meter run while freshman Garth Hull (Arlington, MA) ended up in a three-way tie for eighth with a 5-8 in the high jump. Sophomore Lucas Gagne (Franklin, NH) was just over a foot off an eighth-place distance with an even 42 feet in the weight throw.