NEW LONDON, Conn.— First-year Brady Kirtland (San Diego, Calif.) broke the program record in the 110-meter hurdles and qualified for the finals to highlight Babson College's performance on day one of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's track & field championships Friday at the Coast Guard Academy's Nitchman Track.

The Beavers are tied for fourth place with Springfield in the team scoring heading into Saturday's events with 21 points. MIT has the lead with 89 points, WPI is second with 32, and Coast Guard is third with 26. Five events were completed while two events ran preliminaries and the decathlon completed five of the 10 events.

Kirtland crossed the line in fourth place in a record-time of 14.86 seconds to qualify for Saturday's final, and classmate Boston Thomas (Kailua, Hawaii) just missed the finals with a ninth-place finish in a season-best time of 15.82 seconds. Kirtland bettered the previous record of 14.95 seconds by Jedidiah Kaufman at the 2022 NEWMAC Championships.

Sophomore Nick Yacoub (Sharon, Mass.) earned a podium finish in the men's 10,000 meters. Yacoub, who finished runner-up in the 10K as a rookie last year, brought home third place this year with a time of 31:16.26, more than a minute faster than the 32:25.64 he registered a year ago. Junior Jonathan Hanscom (Hadley, Mass.) crossed the finish line in eighth place in a time of 33:06.16 and classmate Almond Nickeron IV (Darien, Conn.) was right behind in ninth in 33:26.54.

Graduate student Diego Sanabria (San Juan, Puerto Rico) finished in fourth place in the javelin throw with a mark of 171-feet, 8-inches. All three Babson competitors in the long jump finished in the top 10 as junior Chris McDonough (North Andover, Mass.) was fourth with a leap of 21-feet, 10.75-inches, sophomore Aithan Bezanson (Danvers, Mass.) was right behind in fifth with a season-best mark of 21-feet, 4.75-inches, and graduate student Skyler Mott (Mills Neck, N.Y.) was 10th with a mark of 20-feet, 7-inches.

All three Babson runners in the 100-meter dash posted season-best times. McDonough crossed the line in seventh place in 10.88 seconds to qualify for Saturday's final while sophomore Timothy Kelm (Eliot, Maine) was 12th in 11.11 seconds and classmate William Davila (Pompano Beach, Fla.) was 14th in 11.13 seconds.

Sophomore Nick Elward (Ipswich, Mass.) was Babson's top finisher in the hammer throw with a mark of 130-feet, 6-inches to place ninth. Senior Joseph Addotta (Ridgefield, Conn.) was 10th with a mark of 130-feet, 3-inches, and junior Coleman Hayes (New York, N.Y.) was 17th with a mark of 108-feet, 6-inches.

Junior Stratton Seymour (Merrimac, Mass.) is in third place through five events of the decathlon with 2644 points. He won the decathlon high jump with a leap pf 5-feet, 7.75-inches and took second in the 400 meters in a time of 55.34 seconds.

Day two of the championships begins on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.