CONTACT: Adam Sopris, a.sopris@hvcc.edu, 518-629-7898 or 518-416-2137
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Saturday, April 9, 2022
The men's and women's track and field program earned two top-7 finishes at the James Sheehan Memorial Invitational hosted by Fitchburg State University in Fitchburg, Mass.
The meet had 22 total collegiate programs along with eight college club teams. There were several programs that were members of scholarship programs from the NCAA Division 1 and Division 2 levels.
As a team, the men's program placed seventh and accumulated 42.5 points, placing ahead of four-year programs like Worcester State, Boston University and Western New England. The meet had several prominent four-year programs like Southern Maine, host Fitchburg State and Keene State.
Once again highlighting the Vikings men's program was the dominant performance of Charles Benichoux, who won the event's 100m and 200m races for the third week in a row. He posted a 100m time of 11.03, defeating top NCAA Division 3 sprinters. Benichoux's winning 200m time was 22.22.
The women's program also placed seventh overall with 33.5 points and placed ahead of four-year programs like Framingham State and Mass. Maritime. Southern Maine won both the men's and women's team titles for the meet.
Several members of the Vikings program hit qualifying marks for the NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which are being held at Hudson Valley Community College on May 12-14, 2022.
Olivia Skylstad, Hickory Whalen and Eva Sgambettera hit qualifying marks in the 3,000m steeplechase. Skylstad won the women's steeplechase and finished with an official time of 12:42.67. Whalen finished with a mark of 14:39.36 for a 7th place finish, followed by Sgambettera's eighth place with a time of 15:05.38.
Shazim Permaul and Vinny Levchenko hit qualifying marks in the men's 10K event. Permaul posted a time of 35:15.06 and placed third overall, while Levchenko hit the finish line with a time of 37:25.13 for a fourth-place finish.
Martin Bond hit a qualifying mark in his first meet with the Vikings this season. He posted a final distance of 12.78m in the shot put. Bond finished fifth in the shot put and also posted top-10 finishes in the discus (6th) and hammer throw (7th).
Additional top-8 finishes:
Alyssa Bruno – 3rd in High Jump (1.38m)
Dan Honsinger – 5th in Triple Jump (12.02m)
Dan Honsinger – 7th in Long Jump (6.12m)
Ciena Lentz – 4th in Triple Jump (8.95m)
Ciena Lentz – 7th in Long Jump (4.24m)