Senior Mason Griffin won the shot put and placed seventh for discus on Saturday.

Santo, Balestra and Griffin post first place finishes for Skyhawks

AMHERST, Mass. (April 16, 2016) – The Stonehill College men's track & field program earned three event wins to post a fifth place finish at the Minuteman Invitational, hosted by the University of Massachusetts, at the UMass Track & Field Complex today

Junior Joe Santo (Newburyport, Massachusetts/Newburyport) won the 5000-meter run in 15:08.13. Sophomore Sam Bradford (Bedford, Massachusetts/Bedford) finished eighth in the field of 17 runners with a time of 15:37.03, while freshman Steve Scala (Mansfield, Massachusetts/Bishop Feehan) rounded out the top ten in 15:53.50.

Sophomore Stefan Balestra (Lincoln, Rhode Island/Lincoln) took first place in the hammer throw with a distance of 153-feet, 4-inches. Balestra was also sixth in the discus throw with a distance of 117-feet, 10-inches. Senior Mason Griffin (Wellesley, Massachusetts/Wellesley) placed seventh with a throw of 109-09.

Griffin also won the shot put event with a distance of 47-feet, 5.25-inches. Freshman Darren Shi placed fourth with a throw of 42-09.75.

Junior All-American Matt Baldasare (Mansfield, Massachusetts/Mansfield) finished third out of 22 entries in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.34-seconds.

Sophomore Jonathan Naval (Stratford, Connecticut/Bunnell) placed third in the triple jump by clearing a personal-best distance of 43-feet, 5.25-inches.

Sophomore Jordan Sullivan (Sound Beach, New York/Miller Place) placed third in the high jump with a personal-best height of 6-feet, 3.25-inches.

Freshman Joe Connolly (Wilmington, Massachusetts/Austin Prep) finished fifth out of 19 entries in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.59-seconds, while sophomore Ruddy Severino (Methuen, Massachusetts/Methuen) placed 11^th in 23.24. Connolly also finished seventh out of 20 sprinters in the 100-meter dash in 11.26-seconds.

Junior Joe Santo placed first in the 5000-meter run.

Connolly, Severino, Baldasare and sophomore Patrick Ahern (Charlotte, North Carolina/Providence Day School) were all part of Stonehill's 4x100-meter relay that finished second to host UMass (42.18) with a time of 42.46-seconds. Severino ran the lead leg, followed by Connolly and Ahern before Baldasare completed the anchor leg.

Ahern and Baldasare also ran for Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay that finished fifth out of 12 teams in 3:24.67. Freshman Daniel Madsen (West Haven, Connecticut/Notre Dame-West Haven) ran the lead leg, followed by Baldasare and Ahern before sophomore Joshua Hubbell (Gloucester, Massachusetts/St. John's Prep) ran the anchor leg.

Stonehill's three event wins led the way for a fifth place finish as a team as it compiled 87 points. Host UMass won the event with 194 points, followed by Central Connecticut State University in second with 165.50. College of the Holy Cross was third with 98 points, followed by American International College in fourth (97 points) and then Stonehill.

Sophomore Mark Hamalian (West Bridgewater, Massachusetts/Bridgewater-Raynham) finished fifth in the long jump with a distance of 20-feet, 7.00-inches.

Sophomore Stefan Balestra won the hammer throw and placed sixth for discus.

Freshmen Stephen Vercollone (Pembroke, Massachusetts/Pembroke) and David Lockhart (Stoughton, Massachusetts/Stoughton) finished ninth and tenth, respectively, out of 40 entries in the 800-meter run. Vercollone posted a time of 1:55.32, while Lockhart finished in 1:55.49. Junior Duncan Burleigh (Hingham, Massachusetts/Hingham) and freshman Riley Dowd (Peabody, Massachusetts/Peabody Veterans Memorial) ran 18^th and 19^th, respectively in 1:58.56 and 1:58.67. 

Freshman Lucas Taxter (Readville, Massachusetts/Xaverian Brothers) and senior Robert Massey (Chelmsford, Massachusetts/Chelmsford) placed 10^th and 11^th, respectively out of 48 competitors in the 1500-meter run. Taxter posted a time of 4:03.85, while Massey clocked in at 4:03.89. Freshman Alexander Demeule (Merrimac, Massachusetts/Pentucket Regional) finished 13^th in 4:05.34.

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