Johnson Leads Men's Outdoor Track To Ninth At Tufts Invitational

Medford, MA --- Junior Andrew Johnson (Thompson, CT) qualified for the ECAC Division III Championships with his leap of 6-4 in the high jump for fifth place (1.93 meters) as he helped lead the men's outdoor track and field team to ninth place at the Tufts Invitational on Saturday.

The meet featured strong competition from several Division I and Division II schools as Northeastern won the meet with 110 points. The Lancers netted 43.25 points for the fourth-highest total by a Division III school out of the 13 in attendance.

Other Division III New England Championship qualifiers included sophomore Stephen Gannon (Foxboro, MA) and senior Jon Parrella (Wilmington, MA), who placed fifth (50.52) and ninth (50.76), respectively, in the 400 meters.

Second-year Duy Truong (Worcester, MA/Doherty) also put up a Division III New England time in the 100 (11.36).

Junior Jeremy Ross (Holden, MA) paced a strong effort by the throws group with a Division III New England standard in the javelin for second-place (177-05/54.08m).

Classmate Matthew Begley (E. Bridgewater, MA) placed third in the javelin (176-6/53.79m) and ninth in the shot put (45-1/34.71m) as freshman James Brodeur (Milford, MA) notched seventh in the javelin (161-3/49.14m).

The 4x100 meter relay team of Truong, Parrella, Gannon, senior Luke Curtis (Dudley, MA) sprinted to a fourth-place time of 43.28.

Junior Kevin Maciel (Tewksbury, MA) put up sixth in the 400 meter hurdles (59.81) before classmate Jason Sliwoski (Leicester, MA) added sixth in the pole vault (12-7.50/3.85m) and 10th in the 110 meter hurdles (16.50).

Parrella notched ninth in the 200 (23.24) and sophomore Matthew Alley (Milford, MA) recorded 16th (23.54) in the same event while Curtis timed 11th in the 100 (11.43).

Senior Kerry Sabanty (Stoughton, MA) scored points with fifth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (11:10.17) and classmate Tim Mazeika (Millbury, MA) was 15th in the 800 (2:00.78).

Other standouts in the field included sophomore Daniel Ross (Foxboro, MA) who was eighth in the high jump (6-0/1.83m) and second-year Mario De Jesus' (Lawrence, MA) 10th place mark in the javelin (155-5/47.38m).

In upcoming action, Worcester State will continue their season at the UMass Lowell meet next Saturday.