BOSTON (February 25, 2022) -- Fresh off his Northeast-10 Conference title in the weight throw on Thursday, junior Connor Everidge (Baldwinville, Mass.) of the Franklin Pierce University men's track & field team was named as the Elite 24 Award winner on Saturday, at the second and final day of the NE10 Championships, held at Reggie Lewis Center. The Elite 24 Awards are given to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average at each NE10 Championship site. As for the competition, the Ravens finished fourth for the third time in program history, one spot in back of their all-time best indoor finish of third.

Everidge boasts a 3.98 GPA as an elementary education major, which marked the highest GPA among the 10 teams competing at the championship meet. It was the first time a member of the Franklin Pierce men's team had earned the Elite 24 Award for the indoor season.

Meanwhile, the Ravens were not too shabby on the competition side of things either, as they added 44 points to their Day 1 total, to finish with 72, and hold strong in fourth place. Up front, Southern Connecticut State (225 points) won its fifth straight NE10 title, and 16^th overall, which is far and away the league record. American International (194 points) was second, which was the fifth straight runner-up finish for the Yellow Jackets. New Haven (87 points) took third, while Stonehill (52 points) rounded out the top five.

On the field side of things the men competed in just two events on Friday, and there were no Ravens in the triple jump. That left Everidge and the throwers to carry the banner, and three of Franklin Pierce's four entries in the shot put were able to score points. Everidge picked up four points in fifth (15.57m), senior Croix Albee (Trenton, Maine) collected three points in sixth (15.01m) and sophomore Sal Lando (Sterling, Mass.) chalked up two points in seventh (14.83m). Farther back, senior Armani Mette (Randolph, Mass.) finished 15^th (12.99m).

The rest of Franklin Pierce's damage came on the track. In the mile, sophomore Wondu Summa (Burlington, Vt.) earned five points with a fourth-place finish (4:13), while sophomore Ntakirutimana Janvier (Burlington, Vt.) finished 15^th (4:38).

From there, it was off to a pair of sprint events. Sophomore Stephen Harris (Billerica, Mass.) medaled in the 60-meter dash final, with a run of 6.98 seconds, to finish third and pick up six points. In the 400-meter dash final, it was three points via a sixth-place finish for sophomore Nathan Rinaldi (Bristol, Conn.).

At double the distance, sophomore Ryan Walker (Seabrook, N.H.) took fourth in 1:56.16 to earn five points in the 800 meters. Back on the sprint side of things, Harris doubled up and medaled in the 200-meter dash final as well, with a time of 21.67 seconds to take second place and eight points.

In the longest distance of the day, graduate student Sebastien Vicary (Ulceby, United Kingdom) narrowly missed scoring in the 3000 meters, as he took ninth, with a run of 8:49. Senior Cody Tallent (Bellows Falls, Vt.) followed farther down the ledger in 14^th, with a time of 9:04.

As always, a pair of relays rounded out the NE10 Championship. In the 4x800, Summa nearly erased a six-second gap on the anchor leg, as he vaulted the Ravens from fourth after three legs to a second-place finish, by just over half-a-second. In the end, the all-sophomore lineup of Ryan Outerbridge (Paget, Bermuda), Walker, Thomas Darrah (Thetford, Vt.) and Summa turned in a time of 7:49.52.

Unfortunately, Franklin Pierce's meet participation ended with a DNF in the 4x400-meter relay.

The Ravens will send select individuals to Boston University on Sunday, to take a final stab at improving their national standing ahead of next week's NCAA Championships selections.