Alves Sixth, King Seventh at Bates Invitational Heptathlon

By Jim Fenton

LEWISTON, Maine -- Two members of the Bridgewater State University men's track & field team finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the heptathlon at the Bates Invitational & Multi.

Sophomore Drew Alves (Taunton, Mass.) was sixth with a personal-best 3,887 points and senior Ryker King (Wareham, Mass.) placed seventh with 3,845 points in the two-day event held at the Merrill Gymnasium.

Alves and King were in the same positions after the first day, which included four events on Friday, and maintained those spots after the final three events on Saturday.

Christian Burke of the University of Southern Maine was first with 4,686 points, topping the field of 11 competitors.

It was the second collegiate heptathlon for Alves, who scored 3,658 points last February at the Tufts University Branwent Smith-King Invitational.

On Saturday, Alves finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.20 seconds for 720 points.

He was also fifth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:05.8 to record 608 points and gained 418 points with a seventh-place finish in the pole vault.

King, who holds the BSU record in the heptathlon with 4,049 points, finished second on Saturday in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.84 seconds for 781 points.

He was sixth in the pole vault with 444 points and took eighth in the 1,000 with a time of 3:12 for 549 points.

On the opening night, Alves was second in the 60-meter dash, was fifth in the high jump, sixth in the long jump and 10th in the shot put.

King started the event by placing fifth in the 60-meter dash, eighth in the high jump, seventh in the long jump and ninth in the shot put.