Bridgewater, NJ -- The Seahawks hope to soar for four this winter.

Looking for its fourth straight Northeast Conference (NEC) Men’s Indoor Track and Field title, the Seahawks were tabbed as the preseason favorite. Wagner received six first place votes from the league’s head coaches.
 
Following Wagner in the poll was last year's runner-up Central Connecticut, which earned the remaining three first place tallies.
 
Saint Francis U finished third in the rankings with Merrimack coming in at number four.
 
FDU took fifth ahead of LIU in sixth and Stonehill in seventh. Rounding out the preseason selections were Sacred Heart in eighth and first-year NEC member Le Moyne in ninth.
 
The nine teams will compete for the 2024 title on February 18 & 19 at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, NY, where the meet has been hosted since 2016.
 
Wagner wrote its name in the NEC history books last season, becoming the fourth team in league history to win at least three consecutive men’s indoor titles.
 
The Seahawks took home three individual titles last season and return two of those athletes in 2023-24. Senior Jason Marchese (Senior/Staten Island, NY), who comes back to defend his 500-meter title alongside classmate Michael Hubert (Senior/Middle Village, NY), who took home gold in the 800 meters.
 
Additionally, the Seahawks return a cast of top-five finishers including Kharlin Watkins (Junior/Coram, NY), Ryan Lane (Senior/Rochester, NH), Julio Martinez (Sophomore/Madrid, Spain) and Christopher Milillo (Sophomore/Iona Prep) in field events, and Muhammed Qadri (Senior/Staten Island, NY), Johnny Sokoll (Junior/Staten Island, NY), Hunter Longo (Sophomore/Chagrin Falls, OH) and Dominic Palermo (Graduate Student/Staten Island, NY) on the track. Martinez and Milillo shared Outstanding Rookie Performer honors in 2023.
 
Fresh off a cross country title this fall, CCSU has reloaded to make another run at a third indoor crown. CCSU's distance contingent will be especially dangerous after landing five student athletes on the All-NEC cross country squad in October, headlined by individual champion James Sullivan (Junior/Redding, CT) alongside Samuel Whittaker (Salem, CT/East Lyme), Aidan Budge (Sophomore/Newton, CT), Eddie Nicholas (Senior/Woodbury, CT) and Yankarlos Diaz (Senior/Manchester, CT). Sullivan took second in the mile run at last year's indoor meet. The Blue Devils also return 60-meter hurdles champ Edward Williams Jr. (Senior/Waterbury, CT), who also earned points in the 60 meters.
 
After a third-place finish at last season’s championship, Saint Francis U finds itself predicted to finish in the same spot. The Red Flash return Bryce Baker (Senior/Harrisburg, PA), who struck gold in the 60 meters, and Nickolas Hyde (Graduate Student/Somerset, PA), last year's NEC shot put champ.
 
Cory Couture (Senior/Sherrill, NY) will attempt to repeat as 400-meter champion and help Merrimack try to move up the ladder at the 2024 championship meet.
 
Two-time NEC Most Valuable Performer Salif Mane (Senior/Bronx, NY) of FDU will look to become the first student athlete in NEC men’s indoor track history to win a share of the award in three consecutive years. Mane took home the gold for the Knights in the triple jump and long jump while also claiming silver in the 60 meters a year ago. One of the nation's elite triple jumpers, he went on to earn his second indoor All-American honor in the signature event by finishing second at the NCAA Championship with a school record 16.79 meter leap.
 
After winning Most Valuable Performer honors in the distance events in each of the last two years, LIU's Elyas Ayyoub (Junior/Cape Town, South Africa) will attempt to win his third straight gold medal in both the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters.
 
Stonehill returns one defending individual title holder in Solomon King (Senior/Norwood, MA), who won the gold in the 200-meter dash.

About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 43rd season, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of nine institutions of higher learning located throughout five states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Boston (#9). Hartford/New Haven (#34) and Syracuse (#85). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 24 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 15 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Central Connecticut, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.