CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Junior Steve Maffiolini (Southington, Conn./Southington HS), with a second-place in the 400 meters, and classmate Anthony Charter (Hubbardston/Quabbin Reg. HS), with a similar finish in the long jump, had the highest finishes for the Bentley University men's outdoor track and field team during Saturday's Sean Collier Memorial Invitational at MIT's Henry Steinbrenner Track.

Maffiolini broke 50 seconds for the first time, his time of 49.84 seconds an improvement of 0.77 seconds on his previous personal best.  He finished 0.80 seconds back of MIT's William Lee and moved to ninth on the Northeast-10 Conference performance list.

In additional, Maffiolini was 14th of 46 in the 200 meters (23.02) and part of Bentley's 4x100 relay team that placed fourth in 44.55 seconds. Joining him on the relay were a trio of sophomores: Connor Hichens (Sharon/Sharon HS), Anthony Strong (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus HS) and Edy-Elliot Uthman-Olukokun (West Warwick, R.I./West Warwick HS).

Charter cleared 21 feet, 3.25 inches to finish second amongst 15 in the long jump, an event won by Merrimack's John Braga (22'9"). The field in the long jump also included Strong, who was fifth, a quarter-inch shy of 20 feet. Strong also set a new PR in the triple jump, placing fourth in 43 feet, 6 inches.               

Hichens established new PRs in both the 100 and 200 with times of 11.65 and 23.31, respectively. He was 15th in a field of 40 in the 100 and placed 20th of 46 in the 200.

In the 800, junior Christian Connolly (Kingston/Silver Lake Regional HS) placed fifth out of 47 with a 1:58.91, and sophomore David Cooper (Woburn/Woburn HS) followed in seventh with his 1:59.80 one of at least 13 new PRs Bentley achieved in the meet.

Freshman Nik Haas (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey HS) and senior Conor Higgins (Randolph, N.J./ Randolph HS) were Bentley's top finishers in the 1500, placing sixth and eighth, respectively, among 40 competitors. Haas set a new PR of 4:02.30 and Higgins finished in 4:04.85.

Freshman Andrew McCluskey (Bridgewater/Coyle-Cassidy HS) was sixth in the 3000-meter steeplechase, his time of 10:18.01 a new PR and ninth on the season's NE-10 performance list.

In the javelin, junior Chris Ricci (Coventry, R.I./Bishop Hendricken HS) was sixth of 21 (169'11") and sophomore Wes Dupray (Rowley/St. John's Prep) was eighth (149'6"). Dupray also established a new PR in the hammer with his throw of 114 feet fifth best in program history.

This coming weekend, Bentley will compete in the Stonehill Invitational Friday and the Regis Invitational Sunday.