MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Junior Zach Hodge (Springfield, N.H.) won the 400-meters to pace the Plymouth State University men's track & field team at the Middlebury Invitational at Middlebury College on Saturday.
 
Hodge ran an extraordinary personal best when he placed first overall by about a second with a time of 50.87 seconds.
 
Sophomore Kole Matta (Castleton, Vt.) placed in the top eight in three separate throwing events. He was fourth in the javelin, sixth in the hammer throw, and eighth in the discus.
 
Plymouth State competed in the non-scoring meet that included several other Division II and III schools.
 
 
The Basics:

• Middlebury Invitational – No Team Scoring

How it Happened:

• Sophomore Shea McLaughlin (Byfield, Mass.) scored the first points for the Panthers in the 110-meter hurdles with a seventh-place finish in 16.94 seconds.
• Hodge won the 400-meters in 50.87 seconds, while senior Christian Oglesby (Penacook, N.H.) took third in 51.91.
• Freshman Gabe Kean (Thornton, N.H.) led PSU in the 100-meters with a third-place finish, followed by junior Nik Snyder (Pelham, N.H.) in seventh in 11.45 seconds.
• Sophomore Logan Rines (Littleton, N.H.) nabbed a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:03.29.
• A squad of Panthers swept fourth through eighth places in the 200-meters. Kean led the way in 23.06 seconds, followed by freshman Ty Shipmon (Yonkers, N.Y.), Snyder, graduate student Brandon Vachon (Ayer, Mass.), and Hodge.
• The duo of freshman Noah Francis (Bethlehem, N.H.) and sophomore Angelo DeLuca (Lynnfield, Mass.) scored fourth and fifth in the 5,000-meters in times of 16:02.99 and 16:35.08, respectively.
• Freshmen Jake Leazott (Barre, Mass.) and Joey Nelson (East Hampstead, N.H.) scored sixth and eighth in the shot put with tosses of 12.59 meters and 10.64 meters.
• Matta placed fourth in the javelin with a launch of 41.38 meters and was eighth in the discus with a mark of 34.56 meters.
• Freshman Cooper Conklin (Cumberland, R.I.) landed fourth in the hammer throw with a heave of 47.66 meters. Matta also placed sixth with a throw of 37.38 meters.

 
Up Next:

• Plymouth State heads to the Little East Conference Championship hosted by UMass Dartmouth next Saturday (Apr. 26).