Kingston, RI (U-WIRE) -- The University of Rhode Island men's track and field team competed in the IC4A Indoor Track and Field Championship in Boston over the weekend. The team finished in 17th place out of 53 teams with 18.33 points.

"The IC4A is the oldest track and field conference in the United States, it takes in 115 schools from Ohio east to Virginia North, so it takes in everybody who's anybody in track and field," head coach John Copeland said.

Since the IC4A championship is one of the qualifying events, only a certain few can actually compete in the event by the team members' performance throughout the year. "You have to qualify to the IC4A's with your year-long performance to get there," Copeland said.

"All year long we do a team approach to everything we do, but the IC4A's is more of an individual thing where we encourage the kids to work on their individual events and try to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Ass-ociation Championship," Copeland added.

The upper echelon of qualifying events is the NCAA championship, which requires extreme high-level performance to qualify for.

The highlight of the IC4A championship was the performance of senior Andre Reid in the shot put. Reid broke his URI school record for the second time this season with a massive heave of 60-8 1/2. He acheived his previous school recordat the Boston University Valentines Invitational, where his toss was 60-4 1/2.

Reid ended up in second place in the shot behind Pittsburgh's Justin Clickett. He also added 8 points to the Rams final score. Also, Reid's distance was an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the shot.

On the track, sophomore Ashhad Agyapong competed in the 200-meter dash alongside junior Eric Groce. In the preliminaries of the dash, Agyapong finished with a time of 21.48 seconds, landing him in 5th place and qualifying him for the finals of the event. Unfortunately, Groce missed the finals of the event, as he finished in 10th place of the preliminaries.

In the finals of the event, Agyapong performed well, as he finished in third place out of nine competitors with a time of 21.36 seconds. Agyapong added six points to the Rams score with his performance in the event.

Sophomore Darnell Douglas was the solo Ram competing in the 400-meter dash. Regrettably, Douglas did not compete strongly enough in the event, as he finished 24th out of 28 competitors, leading to his inability to compete in the finals.

The 55-meter hurdles featured sophomore LaeJon Brooks. In the preliminaries Brooks ran a time of 7.68 seconds, landing him in 15th place out of 25 competitors. With this time, Brooks advanced to the semi-finals of the event. In the semis, Brooks ran a time of 7.65 seconds, which unfortunately was not good enough for him to reach the finals.

In the field, senior Evan Lima competed in the high jump. Lima finished the event tied for 8th place with a height of 6-7.

Junior Adam Zucconi was the lone Ram participating in the pole vault event at the IC4A Championship. Zucconi's performance was good on an individual basis but the competition at the championship was too fierce for him and he ended up in 10th place in the event.

In the 35 lb. weight throw, sophomore Daniel Godin performed well, as he finished in fifth place with a distance of 61-7. With his performance, Godin earned the team an additional four points to add to the team's score.

Both Reid and Agyapong find out today whether they are invited to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship in the shot put and the 200-meter dash. The NCAA championship begins on Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas and continues into Saturday.

The Rams outdoor track and field season is approaching fast. It begins on Saturday, March 26, when the team competes in the Northeastern Cohen Invitational in Dedham, Mass.

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