Rugabirwa, Gisore add top-five finishes in mile, 1,000 meters

MEDFORD, Mass. (February 2, 2013) – Freshman Vincent Biunno (Montgomery, N.Y.) piled up 4,505 points to place second in the heptathlon at the Tufts Stampede on Friday and Saturday, leading the way for a Franklin Pierce University men's track and field team which recorded four top-five finishes in the Gantcher Center. Franklin Pierce collected 29 points as a team at Tufts to finish 10th in the 20-team meet.

Biunno's heptathlon performance highlighted the meet for the Ravens. While all other track events at Tufts were held on Saturday, six of the seven heptathlon events were contested on Friday evening, before the event finished up on Saturday. Along the way to his second-place finish, Biunno won the 60-meter dash (7.29), while placing second in both the high jump (1.94m) and the 60-meter hurdles (8.67). He also finished third in the long jump (6.08m), tied for third in the pole vault (3.20m), fourth in the 1,000 meters (2:54.08) and seventh in the shot put (8.92m).

Franklin Pierce picked up another second-place finish in the 4x200-meter relay (1:32.27). An all-freshman squad of Ryan Dionne (Amesbury, Mass.) to Shawn DeCost (Nashua, N.H.) to Mike Abrams (Newark, N.J.) to Adam-Corey Rander (Bronx, N.Y.) picked up another eight points for the Ravens with their performance.

Two individual events rounded out the four top-five finishes on the day for Franklin Pierce, as sophomore Makopa Rugabirwa (Concord, N.H.) finished third in the mile (4:24.46) to pick up six points and junior Antoine Gisore (Concord, N.H.) placed fourth in the 1,000 meters (2:35.55) to earn five points. It was the first run for each in their respective events this season, and Gisore's time was the fastest run by a Raven in the 1,000 meters so far this winter.

Elsewhere, the Franklin Pierce 4x800-meter relay squad rounded out the team's scoring on the day with a seventh-place finish (8:24.16) to collect two points. The time is currently good enough for fifth in the Northeast-10 and was posted by a lineup of Gisore to Rugabirwa to freshman Ryan Cross (Suffern, N.Y.) to freshman Chris Birotte (Lynn, Mass.).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (162 points) took home the team title after nearly doubling up the second-place team, Williams (85.5). Host Tufts (69), Bridgewater State (63) and Massachusetts Dartmouth (53) rounded out the top five.

The Ravens hit the track twice next weekend: on Friday, Feb. 8 at the BU Valentine's Day Meet and on Saturday, Feb. 9 at the MIT Co-Ed Invite. The meets will be the final tune-ups of the indoor season before the Northeast-10 Championship on Feb. 16.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce track and field apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' brand new online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).