Cataldo, Minors, Wooten, DMR all post wins

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (December 5, 2015) – Three NEICAAA Championships qualifying times and four victories highlighted a day scattered with top-five finishes on Saturday, as the Franklin Pierce University men's track & field team opened the 2015-16 campaign at the Smith Winter Classic, hosted by Smith College.

A trio of Ravens used the season's very first meet to get qualifying for the NEICAAA Championships out of the way early. Two such qualifying marks came in the 5,000 meters, where junior B.J. Smith (Concord, N.H.) led the way in seventh place, with a time of 15:04.71. Fellow junior Jon Holmes (Albany, N.Y.) followed in eighth, with a mark of 15:07.03. The remaining NEICAAA qualifying mark for Franklin Pierce on Saturday came in the triple jump, where graduate student Andre Wooten (St. Charles, Mo.) notched a hop, skip and jump of 14.25 meters to win the event.

Wooten's win in the triple jump was one of four victories on the day for the Ravens. Junior Cory Cataldo (Tewksbury, Mass.) added another win in field events, as he posted a long jump leap of 6.63 meters. Meanwhile, on the track, junior Dage Minors (Hamilton Parish, Bermuda) stopped the clock at 1:21.35, to lay claim to the title in the 600 meters

Franklin Pierce also picked up a relay win at Smith. The distance medley relay squad of Minors, sophomore Joshua Ercolini (Woburn, Mass.), junior Dylan Crowley (Woburn, Mass.) and Smith got the baton to the finish line in a time of 10:56.09.

The wins and the qualifying marks made up just some of the top-five finishes for the Ravens at the Smith Winter Classic. Senior Ryan Dionne (Amesbury, Mass.) had a pair of top-five finishes, including a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash (23.01). In the 100-meter dash, Dionne won his heat with a time of 7.13 seconds, before turning in a 7.11 to place fourth in the final.

Sophomore Rindal Pierre-Canel (Randolph, Mass.) finished in the top five twice on the field events side of things. He took home third in the long jump (6.57m) and placed fourth in the triple jump (13.29m).

Adding second-place finishes along the way on Saturday were senior Vinny Biunno (Montgomery, N.Y.) in the high jump (1.93m), junior Matt Carpenter (Gloucester, Mass.) in the 600 meters (1:24.07) and sophomore Nicholas Jacques (Westfield, Mass.) in the 400 meters (52.04).

Cataldo added a third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles to his day, as he ran a time of 8.60 seconds in the final, after winning his preliminary heat with an 8.67. Also with a third-place finish was freshman Christopher Lord (North Andover, Mass.) in the 800 meters (2:00.16).

Posting a fourth-place finish was Ercolini in the 600 meters, with a time of 1:24.44. Meanwhile, sophomore Martin Gradijan (Lebanon, N.H.) placed fifth in the mile (4:36.94), while freshman Ryan Woolley (Wallingford, Conn.) was fifth in the pole vault (3.79m).

The Ravens return to the track on Thursday, Dec. 10, for the first day of the Elm City Challenge, hosted by Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn.

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).