Barnes Paces Men's Track & Field at Season-Opening BSU Bears Invitational

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – Junior Exondus Barnes (East Providence, R.I.) won a pair of individual events to lead the Bridgewater State University men's outdoor track & field team at the season-opening non-scoring BSU Bears Invitational on Saturday at Swenson Field.

Barnes placed first in both the high Jump and long Jump in the first meet of the outdoor season. Barnes posted a mark of six feet, 2.75 inches (1.90m) in the high jump and a leap of 21 feet, 6.75 inches (6.57m) in the long jump.

Senior Matthew Lighten (Dalton, Mass.) and graduate student Trevor Wysong (Taunton, Mass.) won individual events for the Bears. Lighten placed first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.86 seconds, while Wysong captured top honors in the 10,000-meter run with a school record-setting time of 30:40.17. Wysong eclipsed the previous BSU program mark of 30:59.75 set by Avery Bouchard in 2009.

Barnes (long jump, high jump), Lighten (100) and Wysong (10,000) each qualified for the Division III New England Championships with their performances. Lighten and Wysong also qualified for the NEICAAA Championships.

Sophomore Jason Dann (Reading, Mass.) added a second-place performance for Bridgewater State. Dann posted a throw of 140 feet, five inches (42.79m) in the hammer throw.

In the 110-meter hurdles, the Bears placed second, third and fourth with performances from junior Dimetri Morris (North Andover, Mass.), sophomore Thomas Barinelli (Tewksbury, Mass.) and freshman Chigozie Adigwe (Lowell, Mass.). Morris (15.57), Adigwe (16.09) and Barinelli (16.21) all qualified for the Division III New England Championship.

Junior Corey Stalters (Norton, Mass.) placed second in the javelin with a DIII New Englands and NEICAAA Championships qualifying mark of 199 feet, five inches (60.79m). Stalters was just an inch shy of the BSU school record of 199 feet, six inches set by Joshua Moore in 2019.

Next weekend, the Bears will compete at the UMass Dartmouth Corsair Classic.