Men's Track & Field Captures Seventh Straight MASCAC Outdoor Title

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- For the seventh season in a row, the Bridgewater State University men's outdoor track & field team has won the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference championship.

The Bears captured 11 MASCAC individual and two relay titles, and scored 240 points to keep the title streak going in a meet held Friday at the Swenson Athletic Complex.

Westfield State University was second with 172 points followed by Fitchburg State, Worcester State and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

BSU began the string of MASCAC championships in 2018 and three of the titles have been won at home. There was no meet in the 2020 season due to COVID.

The Bears had three double winners -- graduate student Corey Stalters (Norton, Mass.), senior Kevin McBirney (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and freshman Alex Huynh (Stoughton, Mass.).

Also finishing first were juniors Ryker King (Wareham, Mass.) and Kyle Ackroyd (Charlestown, R.I.), senior Chigozie Adigwe (Lowell, Mass.) and sophomores Nathan Branco (Fairhaven, Mass.) and Matthew Mooney (Douglas, Mass.).

Stalters, an NCAA Division III All-American, was again first in the shot put (49'7.25"/15.12m) and also won the javelin (216'2"/65.89m).

McBirney swept the 800-meter and 1,500-meter races for the third time in his career and was also on a winning relay team.

He won the 800 with a time of 1:54.98 and had a time of 4:02.60 in the 1,500.

Huynh, an All-American during the indoor season, took the high jump with a leap of six feet, 6.75 inches (2.00m). That was just shy of the school record set in 2021 by Exondus Barnes (6'7"/2.01m).

Huynh was also the winner in the long jump (22'10"/6.96m).

King won the pole vault (11'1.75"/3.40m) and was followed in the top four by his teammates.

Freshman Drew Alves (Taunton, Mass.) was second (10-8), sophomore Ryan McCarthy (Weymouth, Mass.) placed third (9-8.25) and freshman Ryan Anglin (Walpole, Mass.) took fourth (9-8.25).

Ackroyd was first in the 10,000-meter race with a time of 33:09.26. It marked the second year in a row that Ackroyd won the event.

Adigwe was first in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.23 seconds and was second in the 400 hurdles in 58.14 seconds.

Branco was the winner in the 400 hurdles in 58.10 seconds.

Mooney placed first in the 200 with a time of 22.74 seconds. He was also third in the 100 in 11.25 seconds.

BSU's 4x100 relay team was first with a time of 41.66 seconds, just shy of the school record of 41.64 set in 2014.

The Bears won the 4x400 relay race in 3:22.41 with senior Stephen Spofford (Chelmsford, Mass.), McBirney, King and senior Charles Dakai (Millville, Mass.).

The team included Mooney, junior Dasean Peters-Wolfe (Mansfield, Mass.), graduate student Mason Matias (New Bedford, Mass.) and freshman Joshua Cardichon (Brockton, Mass.).

Also scoring points for the Bears were junior Chris Beaulieu (Monson, Mass.) and Jasen Jean-Louis (Framingham, Mass.), who were second and fifth in the long jump.

In the high jump, Alves was fifth and Anglin sixth while junior Colin Daly (South Easton, Mass.) placed fourth in the hammer throw.

Sophomore Aydan Fournier (Assonet, Mass.) finished third in the 1,500 and senior Kenny Goodwin (Chelmsford, Mass.) was third in the 5,000.

BSU placed three in the 400 with senior Spofford third, Beaulieu fourth and Dakai fifth.

In the 110 hurdles, Alves was third and Anglin placed fourth while Peters-Wolfe was fourth in the 100.

Matias was second to Mooney in the 200 with Spofford sixth and freshman Chase Noel (Bridgewater, Mass.) took fifth in the discus while sophomore Brian Vale (Assonet, Mass.) was sixth in the 800.