United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Men's Indoor Track and Field - 20 Bears Earn All-NE Honors in 4th Place Finish

MEDFORD, MASS.--(2/23/08)--Coast Guard's 4x400 relay team of Matt Romano, Jason Erickson, Kyle Coleman and Thomas Adams won with a time of 3:24.04 as Coast Guard placed fourth of the 25 teams at the New England Division III Championships hosted by Tufts.

Coast Guard finished with 70.5 points and had 20 athletes finish in the top eight to earn All-New England honors.

Adams also earned All-New England honors with a third place finish in the 400 meters (50.67) while Romano placed third in the 600 meters (1:22.66).

The 4x800 relay earned All-New England status with a fourth place finish as the team of Pat Fernandez, Steve Bondira, Chris Marquis and Mike Haas posted a time of 7:57.02.

The distance medley team of Nate Crum, Pat Burnett, David Boyle and Eric Laurel also placed fourth with a time of 10:36.52

Also earning All-New England honors for the Bears were freshman Carl Luxhoj in both the long jump (2nd place/22-2.25) and the triple jump (5th place/45-5.75), Mike Persun in the 3,000 meters (5th/8:44.52), Erickson in the 600 meters (7th/1:23.25), Chris Hunt in the weight throw (3rd/56-9.25), Nate Rhodes (4th/13-11.25) and Jordan Kellam (5th/13-11.25) in the pole vault, Tyler Ashner in the high jump (8th/6-1.5) along with Beau Belanger (6th) and Jesse Cremeans (7th) in the pentathlon.

Hunt broke the school record in the weight throw with a toss of 56' 9.25". The old record was 55' 8.75" set in 1988 by Chris Myskowski. This mark moves Chris up six spots on the National ranking list to 9th.

Romano also broke a school record in the 600 meters with a time of 1:22.66. The old mark was 1:23.01 set by Mike Flint in 2006.