Mike Vatti
Mike Vatti

Vatti Provisionally Qualifies for NCAAs in 400 Meters

BOSTON, Mass. – An NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time by senior Mike Vatti (Easton, Pa./Easton HS) topped the list of performances for the Bentley University men's indoor track and field team at Saturday's Boston University Valentine's Invitational.

Competing at the BU Track and Tennis Center, Vatti posted a time of 49.17 seconds, a season best by 1.30 seconds. He placed 29th of 172, and in addition to meeting the NCAA provisional standard, he also qualified for the New England Championships.

Vatti also qualified for the New Englands in the 200 meters, his time of 22.59 seconds placing him 39th out of 167 runners.

Senior Steven Long (Newton/Newton North HS) and freshman Anthony Charter (Hubbardstown/Quabbin Reg. HS) turned in solid performances in the shot put and triple jump, respectively. Long had his best throw of the season in the shot, placing 16th of 38 with a distance of 44 feet, 6.75 inches. Charter established a personal best and climbed to third on Bentley's all-time list in the triple jump, clearing 44 feet, 0.5 inches to finish 14th out of 35.

In the 5,000 meters, junior Rob Dextradeur (Branford, Conn./Branford HS) qualified for the New Englands and placed 36th of 78 with a time of 15:03.01. That set a new PR and elevated him to seventh in Bentley history.

Also moving up on Bentley's all-time lists were juniors Bryan Carton (Norwell/Norwell HS) in the 400 and Craig Robinson (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough HS) in the 3,000. Carton moved to ninth after placing 56th of 172 with a 50.08, and Robinson finished in 8:37.91, good for 62nd among 103 runners.

Other Bentley runners who set new personal bests during Saturday's competition included sophomore Tom Quentin (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy) in the mile (4:34.60), freshman Mac Segura-Cook (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood Academy) in the mile (4:37.29) and junior Rob Hennessy (North Andover/North Andover HS) in the 1000 (2:33.39).

Next Saturday, Bentley will compete in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships at Boston's Reggie Lewis Center.