January 27, 2007 - at Boston Terrier Invitational
January 27, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men’s Indoor College Track
Boston Terrier Invitational
BOSTON, Mass.—The Rider men’s indoor track and field teams competed Saturday in the Terrier Invitational, hosted by Boston University. “We had some really solid performances today,” said head coach Rob Pasquariello. “We had some real workman like efforts and put together four IC4A qualifying times.”
Sophomore AJ Parillo (South River) ran an IC4A qualifying time of 48.86 placing 17th in the 400m setting a new personal record time in the event and placed 27th in the 200m (22.48) with senior David Payne (Neptune) qualifying for IC4A’s with a fourth place finish in the 200m (21.64).
“A.J. has done whatever we have asked him to do,” said Pasquariello. “Having a year of experience in collegiate track under his belt and by training hard over the summer, A.J. really set himself up to improve this season and ease the transition from the fall soccer season into the winter and spring track seasons. It is just a matter of time until his jumping catches up to his sprinting.” Parillo is also a two-year letter winner with the Rider soccer team.
“Soccer is a different set of skills but out of anyone, the skills transfer over well for A.J., running the 200 meter and 400 meter events as well as the long jump,” Pasquariello said. “I’m not sure it would work out as well for kids in other events but it has worked out well for him. It has helped that he had a high level of maturity coming in and he has the work ethic and is willing to go through whatever he needs to in order to become a better athlete. He doesn’t get satisfied and he is always thinking about his next race, the next PR he can hit and how he can get there.”
Junior Randy Nixon (Manorville, N.Y./West Hampton) was fourth in the 55 meter hurdles, posting a time of 7.64 to qualify for IC4A’s with the 4x400 meter relay of Payne, freshman Paul Racioppi (Old Bridge), Parillo and Nixon placing sixth with an IC4A qualifying time of 3:19.61. Nixon was also 35th in the 200 m (22.61).
“Payne and Nixon have been leading us,” Pasquariello said. “They have bought into the training methods that coach Justin Lindsey has been doing with them and it took an adjustment period and they had enough faith to take a small step back to take two large steps forward.”
Lindsey, a 2001 Rider graduate is in his second season on the staff and was the 2001 Rider Male Athlete of the Year.
Also for Rider, Sophomore Tom Planer (Cranford) placed seventh in the high jump (6’2”), freshman Kevin Breen (Langhorne, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) placed eighth in the pole vault (13’6.25”) and sophomore Phillip Breen (Langhorne, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) was 10th in the pole vault (13’0.25”).
Senior Doug Beck (Branchburg/Somerville) placed 11th in the shot put (47’7”) and 12th in the weight throw (49’6.25”), junior Paul Matuszak (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) was 14th in the 5,000m (14:52.27), with senior Danny Enck (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) placing 16th in the weight throw (46’2.75”) and 17th in the shot put (44’11.5”).
Sophomore Matt Dahl (West Keansburg/Raritan) was 18th in the 1,000m (2:39.16), and sophomore Edward Stone (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest) placed 20th in the shot put (44’8”).
Junior Jeff Stead (Fairless Hills, Pa./Pennsbury) was 43rd in the mile (4:20.92), junior Ryan Donohue (Freehold Twp.) was 44th in the 800m (2:00.58) and junior John Smith (Cliffwood Beach/Matawan) was 54th in the 3,000m (8:52.36).
Rider competes at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory in New York on February 2 and 3 with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships less than three weeks away.
“Overall, we’ve been working through some injuries,” Pasquariello added. “We didn’t have the whole team intact but we did pretty well. We do need to get healthy in the next three weeks heading into the conference championships.”
-RU-
