SENIOR SALUTE: Owls Sensational on Senior Day at Gravel Classic Meet

WESTFIELD, Mass.    –  'Neither rain, nor snow  . . . shall keep these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,' reads the informal motto of the post office.

Well, rain and snow delayed the 2025 Jerry Gravel Classic track meet at Westfield State by 24 hours, but the Owls men's track athletes were swift on Sunday, winning three events on the track and three more in the field events.

Senior John Nekitopoulos (West Springfield, Mass.) won the race of the day, holding off teammate Rowan Gottschall (Simsbury, Conn.) by 2/100ths of a second in a photo finish in the 800.   Nekitopoulos went to the lead and went wire to wire.  Gottschall trailed just behind Nekitopoulos and with 60 meters to go drew nearly even, but the photo at the tape showed Nekitopoulus out-leaning Gottschall at the wire.  Both ran sub 2:00, as Nekitopoulos stopped the clock in 1:59.93.  Lorcan Bergeron (Medway, Mass.) finished third as the Owls swept the top three spots in the event

Another outstanding race came in the 1500, where Nathan Sylven (Wrentham, Mass.) led for the first 1250 meters, where teammate Scott Porter  (Boylston, Mass.) outkicked Sylven on the turn for home, with Porter winning in 4:18.66, just 53/100 quicker than his teammate.

Westfield's Jordan Stallworth (Chicopee, Mass.) came home first in the 100 meters, clocking in at 11.47 seconds. Westfield senior Max Margeson (Littleton, Colo.) was fourth in 11.74 seconds.

Owls' senior Dylan Clark (Bellows Falls, Vt.) took top honors in the hammer throw, with a best result of 43.09 meters (141'-4").  Clark added a second-place finish in the javelin and discus, and a third-place result in the shot put with a toss of 13.19 meters (43'-3.25").

Westfield's Johnny Ware (Wilmington, Mass.) was the top man in the javelin thow, screaming his way to a mark of 52.87 meters (173'-05") on his first throw of the day.

Westfield State athletes placed 1-2-3 in the men's long jump.  Sophomore Daniel Shea (Longmeadow, Mass.) topped the field with a leap of 6.79 meters (22-3.5), followed by Michael Pelletier (Wilbraham, Mass.) (6.46) and Ali Warsame  (Chelsea, Mass.) (6.45).    Warsame added a second place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 13.26 meters (43-6), while Pelletier was third.

Haji Hassani (W. Springfield, Mass.) had a second-place finish in the pole vault with a height of 2.50 meters.

Westfield's 4x100 relay placed second in 43.49 seconds, .18 behind the winners from UMass Dartmouth. Jace Falcone (Wilbraham, Mass.), Theo Yetman (Franklin, Mass.), Margeson and Stallworth completed the circuit for the Owls with Stallworth in a desperate chase down the home stretch while making up ground but coming up just short in a tight race.

Westfield State honored it's seniors before the start of competition, with Clark, Margeson, Nekitopoulos joined by William Buckley (Plymouth, Mass.), Aidan O'Neil (Chicopee, Mass.) and Jarrod Ledvina (Fairhaven, Mass.).

Westfield State also celebrated the induction of distance and cross country coach Marlee Berg-Haryasz '09 to the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference hall of fame.  Berg won the 2009 NCAA Division III National Championship in the indoor high jump, and was a 15-time conference champion in a variety of track and field events.

Westfield will be back in action next Saturday at the Trinity College Invitational in Hartford, Conn., with the MASCAC Championship meet looming on Friday, April 25 at Bridgewater State.