BOSTON, Mass. -- Senior Conor Murtagh (Walpole, Mass.) placed first in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles and the Bears' distance medley relay set a new school record to lead the Bridgewater State University men's indoor track and field team during day one of the 2016 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championships on Friday at Boston University.

Murtagh equaled his season-best with a time of 8.15 seconds in the preliminaries of the hurdles as he advanced to Saturday's semifinals. Heading into this weekend's meet, Murtagh was ranked eighth in all of Division III in the event.

The Bears' DMR featuring junior Justin Lucier (Attleboro, Mass.), sophomores Joseph Kisamore (Walpole, Mass.) and Michael Kotleski (Great Barrington, Mass.) and freshman Adrian Higgins (Milton, Mass.) placed 13th with a time of 10:22.69. The foursome eclipsed the previous  BSU mark of 10:23.71 set by Bill Taft, Stephen Wahome, Matt Perreault and Mike Sukeforth in 2010.

Senior Andrews Couture (Dighton, Mass.) finished tenth in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash with a season-best time of 7.01 seconds. Couture advanced to Saturday's semifinals.

Higgins added a 15th place showing in the 500-meter dash (1:06.65).

Day two of the NEICAAA Championships gets underway on Saturday at 10:00 AM.