Men's Track & Field Captures New England Alliance Title

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's outdoor track & field team captured the New England Alliance title on Sunday at the MASCAC/New England Alliance Championships hosted by UMass Dartmouth. 

The Bears recorded a team score of 134.33 point to finish ahead of second place UMass Dartmouth (125 pts.) and third place Westfield State University (121 pts.)

Bridgewater also placed second in the MASCAC standings with 175 points finishing behind conference champion Westfield State University (219 pts.).

Brian Espinosa (Rehoboth, Mass.) garnered a pair of Alliance individual titles to lead the Bears.  Espinosa placed first in both the 100-meter dash (10.88) and the 200-meter dash (21.62).  His time of 21.62 seconds in the 200 broke the previous BSU standard of 21.66 seconds set by John Comeau back in 1993.

Joshua Danner-Hicks (Haverhill, Mass.) broke his own school record in the triple jump with a meet-best leap of 48 feet (14.63 meters).  Danner-Hicks, who ranks seventh in all of Division III in the triple jump, eclipsed his previous standard of 47 feet, seven inches set last season.

Conor Murtagh (Walpole, Mass.) grabbed top honors in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.83 seconds.

The Bears' 4x100-meter relay team of Espinosa, Chinedu Chukwu (Randolph, Mass.), Joseph Danner-Hicks (Haverhill, Mass.) and Andrew Couture (Dighton, Mass.) posted a second place time of 41.91 seconds to break the previous BSU outdoor standard of 42.26 seconds set in 2013.

In the MASCAC results, Bridgewater had six different MASCAC champions led by Espinosa who won three individual titles in the 100, 200 and long jump (22'3"/6.78m).

The Bears' other five MASCAC champions included Murtagh in the 110 hurdles, Danner-Hicks in the triple jump, Kevin Sawyer (Woburn, Mass.) in the 400-meter hurdles (56.15), Stephan Cawley (Dedham, Mass.) in the shot put (47'8.5"/14.54m) and Declan Wirzburger (Hanson, Mass.) in the hammer throw (152'5"/46.45m).

Regional postseason play gets underway next weekend when qualifying member of the BSU men's track & field team compete at the Division III New England Championships hosted by Springfield College.