Men's Indoor Track and Field Expects Repeated Success for 2007-08 Season
HOBOKEN, N.J. (November 29, 2007) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men’s indoor track and field team is coming off its most successful season yet. The Ducks set seven school records and had five individuals that qualified for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships during the 2006-07 campaign. As they move into the Empire 8 conference they will compete against the strongest some of programs in the North East.
Stevens will be led by sophomore captain Mohamed Abuouf (Livingston, N.J.), junior captain Joe Liccardo (Secaucus, N.J.) and senior captains Philip Mainwaring (Washington, Pa.), Michael Hoffman (Franklin Township, N.J.) and Fred Hardenbrook (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.).
Abuouf set a new school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.77 at the New York University’s Fastrack meet last season held at the New Balance Armory in New York. Hardenbrook registered a third-place finish in the weight throw at the Seton Hall meet last season, Liccardo earned fourth-place honors with a distance of 10.53 meters (34’ 6 1/2”) in the event. Hoffman also produced a school record with his 1:59.31 clocking in the 800-meters.
Morgera established a Stevens record in the 500-meter race with a time of 1:09.32 at the NYU Fastrack meet. At the ECAC Championships Michael Hoffman competed in the 1,000-meter race and earned a ninth-place finish with a time of 2:36.25.
“Some of the men are coming off last season where they have had impressive scoring performances at ECAC’s in addition to their record setting accomplishments here at Stevens,” said Head Coach John Crawford (Seattle, Wash.).
Sophomore Kevin Morgera (West Nyack, N.Y.) and seniors Michael and John Hoffman (Franklin Township, N.J.) were part of the first-ever Stevens relay team that qualified for the ECAC Indoor Championship in the distance-medley. With the help of graduate Matt Savary (Santa Clarita, Calif.), the squad set a new school record in the event with a time of 10:31.18.
“This will be the first year that we have a distance medley relay team that will meet the national qualifying standard,” said Crawford. ”We will need to improve last year’s school record of 10:31.18 by about 20 seconds in order to achieve this goal.”
Coming off an impressive cross country season, freshmen John Barnes (Bayside, N.Y.), Steven Chick (Edison, N.Y.), Juan Carlos Coronel (Ridgefield Park, N.J.) and Brad Antes (Pleasantville, N.J.) will be great contributors to the running portion of the Track and Field events. Junior throwers Matthew Reihl (West Milford, N.J), Stan Valvis (West Patterson, N.J.) and sophomore thrower Michael LoCastro (Highland Park, N.J.), along with Hardenbrook and Liccardo, have had a great fall of training and are hungry for competition to begin.
Top-newcomers expected to make immediate contributions are freshmen Matthew Cooper (Mt. Lakes, N.J.), Michael Gaus (Newton, N.J.) and Nicholas Lowe (Tustin, Calif.). All men are anticipated to make a significant impact in each of the events that they will compete in during the season.
Stevens opens its season on Sunday when they travel to New Haven, Conn. to compete in the CTC Relay Carnival at Southern Connecticut State University at 10 a.m.
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