WATERVILLE, Maine – The Suffolk men's indoor track & field team has nine Rams compete across 11 events to take a third-place showing at the Thomas Small School Open Saturday at Colby College. 

Michael Balestra anchored the pack as the freshman from Lincoln, Rhode Island, won the weight throw. He bested the field of 12 with a toss of 14.32 meters. Matt Sambuceti also tried his hand in the field event. The junior recorded 11.55 meters to take fourth. Sambuceti also competed in the shot put, where he finished sixth thanks to a throw of 10.5 meters. 

Robert Solari had the best showing of the runners with a second-place performance, finishing the 400 meter dash in 53.80 just 0.57 seconds behind the winner. Jonah Flores also donned the blue-and-gold in the event. The freshman took fifth with a time of 56.64.

 Keoni Geers and Arthur Lacerda ran the mile. The former put together a time of 5:01.45, good for fifth, while the latter clocked in at 5:14.22 to finish eighth. 

The Rams pair of Justin Patten and Nicholas Nunez ran the 200 meter dash. The rookie and sophomore finished one right after another to take sixth and seventh, respectively. Patten recorded a time of 25.79 and Nunez tacked on 0.20 to Patten's time. 

Joseph Robinson competed in the 800 meter where his time of 2:13.43 was good for third in the field of seven. 

Solari, Nunez, Patten and Flores also combined for a 4x400 relay squad for Suffolk. 

Suffolk now turns its attention to championship competition with the USATF New England Championships set for next Sunday, Feb. 17 at Harvard University.