SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Senior Matthew Lighten (Dalton, Mass.) broke the school record in the 200-meter dash and earned All-New England honors in three events to lead the Bridgewater State University men's track & field team at the 2022 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Bryant University.

Lighten placed third and garnered All-New England accolades in the 200 with a finals time of 21.28 seconds. He eclipsed the previous BSU outdoor mark of 21.38 seconds set by Brian Espinosa in 2014.

Lighten also placed sixth in the finals of the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.77 seconds and ran a leg on the Bears' All-New England 4x100-meter relay team along with classmate Jacob DeAndrade (Taunton, Mass.) and freshmen Nathan Candido (Taunton, Mass.) and Gavin Weldon (Taunton, Mass.). The foursome posted a time of 42.06 seconds to place eighth in the event.

The Bears tied for tenth place in the team standings at the meet with 24 points. Southern Cinnecticut won the meet title with 170.5 points, followed by URI (114 pts.) and UMass Amherst (52 pts.). MIT was the top Division III school in the standings as the Engineers finished in fourth place with 35.5 points.

Several members of the BSU track and field teams will compete on Thursday at the MIT Final Qualifier.