PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Suffolk men's indoor track & field took its talents to the Granite State Saturday to compete at Plymouth State's Panther Invitational. The Rams finished 10th in a field of 11 with 17 points, which featured five GNAC programs.
The afternoon was highlighted by the Rams 4x400 relay team of Connor Abbotoni, Cole Bolduc, Robert Solari, and Josh Smith, who teamed up for a first-place finish. The foursome's time of 3:34.56 was five seconds faster than Franklin Pierce and 10 seconds better than GNAC counterpart Emmanuel. claiming first place with a time of 3:34.56. The quartet of Rams finished ahead of Franklin Pierce by just under five seconds, while beating the best GNAC competitor (Emmanuel) by 10 seconds.
Individually, Bolduc would be the Rams top runner in the mile. The Ram's rookie finished 11th with a time of 4:45.41. Along with Bolduc, Justin Turner (12th – 4:45.83) followed just behind with Hunter Toyoda (15th – 4:47.76), Joseph Robinson (22nd – 4:57.82), Liam Breen (24th – 4:59.32), and Keoni Green (28th – 5:01.01) all ran in the 40 student-athlete event.
In the field events, Michael Balestra continued an excellent sophomore season in the weight throw. He claimed third in a field of 25 with a throw of 14.49 meters. Teammates, Matthew Sambuceti (11.05 meters) and Frank Irizarry (10.63 meters) placed 12th and 15th, respectively.
Sambuceti and Irizarry also competed in the shot put, along with teammate Michael Power. Sambuceti would set the pace for the Rams with a toss of 10.53 meters, to garner 19th in a field of 35 throwers. Power would follow next (21st – 9.97 meters), with Irizarry rounding out the Rams contingent (29th – 8.80 meters).
In his long jump debut, Connor Baston finished as the top GNAC athlete. He leaped 5.90 meters to finish eighth out of 22. Solari was one notch behind his teammate in ninth with a 5.83-meter jump.
Suffolk has one event left to prep for the inaugural GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, which are set for Sunday, Feb. 16. The Rams will next send a small group to Boston University's David Henry Valentine Invite Saturday, Feb. 15.