Men's Track & Field Competes at NEICAAA Championships, Tufts Final Qualifier

By Jim Fenton

MEDFORD, Mass. -- Bridgewater State University graduate students Kevin McBirney (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Chigozie Adigwe (Lowell, Mass.) had successful days at different track & field meets Saturday.

McBirney finished first in the 800-meter race at the Tufts University Last Qualifier in Medford, Mass.

Adigwe earned All-New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association honors with a sixth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at the indoor championship meet at the Reggie Lewis Center.

McBirney won the race at Tufts by edging out junior Haytham Ramadan (Khartoum, Sudan) of St. Joseph's College of Maine.

The winning time for McBirney was 1:51.98, just ahead of the 1:51.99 that was clocked by Ramadan.

McBirney, in his final season running for the Bears, began the weekend ranked 12th nationally in Division III in the 800.

The qualifiers for the NCAA Championships, to be held next Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., will be announced at 7 p.m. on Sunday on NCAA.com.

For Adigwe, it marks the first time that he finished in the top eight at the NEICAAA indoor meet after placing ninth in 2025 and 12th in 2024.

Adigwe was sixth with a time of 8.54 seconds this year. He was the only non-Division I sprinter in the race, which was won by freshman Lucas Andrade of the University of Rhode Island in 7.93 seconds.

Adigwe returned to the Bears this winter for one final season of eligibility.

He was third in the preliminary race earlier in the day with a time of 8.51 seconds.

This season, Adigwe won the 60 hurdles at the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, the Suffolk Relays and the USATF New England Championships while finishing second at the Wheaton Invitational.

At the Tufts Last Qualifier, freshman Clayton Pastor Norales (New Bedford, Mass.) finished seventh in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 5 and 1/2 inches to earn All-NEICAAA accolades.

BSU junior Aydan Fournier (Assonet, Mass.) was 11th at Tufts in the 800 with a time of 1:55.44.

Also at the NEICAAA meet in Boston, senior Kyle Ackroyd (Charlestown, R.I.) finished 23rd for BSU with a time of 8:52.14.

Graduate student Landon Crowley (West Bridgewater, Mass.) took part in the 60-meter dash preliminary race in the morning at the NEICAAA and finished 21st with a time of 7.16 seconds. He was also in the 200 preliminary on Friday.

BSU senior Ryker King (Wareham, Mass.) was in the heptathlon. He started the second day by moving into ninth place by finishing third in the 60 hurdles (8.83) for 784 points.

King did not have a height in the pole vault and did not run the 1,000.