Murtagh Paces Men's Indoor Track & Field at Art Farnham Invitational

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Junior Conor Murtagh (Walpole, Mass.) captured the meet title in the 60-meter hurdles and equaled his own school mark in the event to lead the Bridgewater State University men's indoor track & field team at the non-scoring MIT Art Farnham Invitational on Saturday.

Murtagh recorded a time of 8.25 seconds as he tied his previous mark set last season at the Division III New England Championships and equaled at the BU Last Chance Meet. Murtagh currently ranks seventh in all of Division III in the hurdles.

Seniors Chinedu Chukwu (Randolph, Mass.) and Chris Perry (Attleboro, Mass.) also added individual titles for the Bears.  Chukwu garnered top honors in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.94 seconds as he was just 1/100 of a second off his own BSU indoor mark.  Perry placed first in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 1.75 inches (7.05 meters).

Six different BSU student-athletes earned second place showings paced by senior Brian Espinosa (Rehoboth, Mass.) in the long jump (22'2.5") and fellow senior Andy Sukeforth (Middleboro, Mass.) in the 1,000-meter run (2:31.26).  Also placing second for the Bears were junior Kevin Sawyer (Woburn, Mass.) in the 600-meter run (1:25.61), classmate Carlton Williamson (Easton, Mass.) in the 400-meter dash (52.18), and freshmen Colin Knapton (Mattapoisett, Mass.) and Zachary Viera (Fairhaven, Mass.) in the high jump (6'0") and mile run (4:59.13), respectively.

With his jump of 22 feet, 2.5 inches (6.77 meters), Espinosa ranks 22nd in Division III.

Freshman Isaiah Matier (North Easton, Mass.) placed fourth in the triple jump with a season-best leap of 43 feet, 3.75 inches (13.20 meters). Matier qualified for the DIII New England Championships in the event.

The Bears will be competing in a pair of meets next weekend; the Terrier Classic on Friday and the Tufts Stampede on Saturday.