SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Senior Lauren Hultzman (Putnam) broke her own program record in the heptathlon with a career-best finish of third and was among 16 Eastern Connecticut State University athletes to achieve All-New England status at the New England Division III Track & Field Championships at Blake Track on the campus of Springfield College.

Hultzman won All-New England honors for the third straight season in the event, breaking her own record by 145 points with a total of 4,173 and finishing only behind junior Alyssa Jasper (4,538 points) of Worcester State University and senior Abigail Bishop (4,538) of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Her top finishes came in the high jump (5-5 ¼), where she was first, and in the javelin (109-1), where she was second.

                                                                                                         At right: Fredrick Hewett

Hultzman, senior Fredrick Hewett (New London), junior Andre Reynolds (Hartford), and freshman Natalie Bowens (Montville) all achieved All-New England status in individual events with Top 8 finishes, along with the women's 4x800 and men's 4x100 and 4x400 relays.   

Hewett gained All-New England honors at 400 meters for the third straight year, earning a seventh-place finish in a field of 23 in a time of 49.72. The Little East and New England Alliance outdoor champion in the 400, Hewett also sparked the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays to All-New England accolades with finishes of seventh among 22 teams and eighth among 20 teams, respectively, at the meet. Contributing to the 4x100 were senior Andrew Prince (Orange), junior D'Vonte Chambers (West Haven), Hewett and sophomore John Boisette (East Hartford), while Hewett, junior Dylan Kruppa (Torrington), Chambers and junior Luisantonio Rosado (Ponce, PR)

Reynolds, the program record-holder in the 110 hurdles (15.00), repeated All-New England honors in that event from a year ago with a personal-best finish of sixth in a field of 23 in a time of 15.19.

In only her sixth collegiate meet, freshman Bowens broke her own record and achieved All-New England status with a fourth place finish in a field of 24. The top freshman in the event, Bowens was measured at 11.40 meters, breaking the record by more than a foot which she had set in her third collegiate meet March 12. 

In addition to Hultzman in the heptathlon and Bowens in the triple jump, Rosado broke his own record of  56.07 in the 400 hurdles with a time of 55.64; and the women's 4x800 relay (10:00.87) broke the record it set at last week's Little East Conference/New England Alliance Championships by nearly 12 seconds. Runners were sophomore Chelsea Morsey (East Hampton), senior Akaya McEleen (New Haven), freshman Mariah McPhee (Bristol), and sophomore Kylie McCartney (Manchester).

Hultzman's season-best high jump mark in the heptathlon was just a half-inch shy of her program record and was the 20^th-best jump this year in Division III. Bowens' triple jump distance is the 29^th longest in Division III and Hultzman's heptathlon point total the 31^st-highest in Division III this season.

Additional qualifiers competing in the meet for Eastern were Hultzman in the high jump (t-14^th), senior Amy Huhn (Hebron) in the pole vault (t-15^th), Bowens in the long jump (t-20^th), freshman Lauren Polansky Milford) in the shot put (14^th), sophomore Emily Kohn (Columbia) in the discus (20^th), sophomore Boisette in the 100 (preliminaries) and 200 (23^rd), Prince in the 100 (preliminaries), junior Lee Cattanach (New London) in the 800 (10^th), and junior Christopher Brown (Hartford) in the long jump (14^th).