Track and Field: Men's Huskies Claim Columbia Challenge Title
UConn bested the field of 21 teams, piling up 75 points over the 17 scored events. The Huskies topped the host Columbia Lions in second by four points. Penn State finished third (69 pts), Cornell was fourth (64 pts) and South Carolina fifth (62).
"We are very pleased with both teams this weekend," commented Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Greg Roy. "The men, in a meet with a great level of competition and we really rallied in the second half of the meet to get the win. We saw a lot of good solid performances, highlighted by the 1-2-3 finish in the heptathlon."
In addition to the Huskies top-three sweep in the heptathlon, UConn also saw junior Wellington Ventura (Cresskill, N.J.) win the 400-meter invitational and senior Eric Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) post a victory in the 3,000 meter.
"They moved Wellington into the invitational section and he won the thing, which was great," stated Roy. "Van Der Els winning the 3000, ran a measured race, just off the school record, took the lead with two laps to go and ran away with it."
"On Friday, Williams and O'Brien ran great. That field in the hurdles was as great as I have seen outside of the national race. And in the field events, Travis in the pole vault did a great job along with Danny Claxton in the high jump."
Really great win.
On the track…
- Senior Eric Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) won the 3000 meters and did so by setting a huge PR. Van Der Els beat the field with a time of 8:04.36, beating his previous best time in the event of 8:22.78 set back in 2017.
- Junior Wellington Ventura (Cresskill, N.J.) got moved into the 400-meter invitational race, competing against so top-flight unattached talent and won the race with a time of 47.94 seconds.
- Junior Markus Bagley (Jersey City, N.J.) was 13th in the 400 meters with a time of 49.11
- On Friday, freshman Terrel Williams (Maplewood, N.J.) took third in the 60-meter hurdles, matching his career-best time at 7.81 seconds.
- Junior Joseph O'Brien (Shrewsbury, Mass.) took third in the 60-meter dash and did so with a new PR, clocking a 6.80 second time. Junior Josiah Thomas (Jamaica, N.Y.) was eighth at 6.96 seconds.
- UConn distance medley relay team of Marzio Mastroianni (Branford, Conn.), Mahamed Sharif (Westbrook, Maine), Stephen Sutton (Tolland, Conn.) and Kevin Cawley (Massapequa, N.Y.) finished fourth overall and had the fastest time of the season with a clocking of 9:55.06.
In the field…
- The Huskies grabbed the top-three spots in the heptathlon with senior Jordan Torney (Toms River, N.J.) winning and both senior Benjamin Grosse (Wayzata, Minn.) and sophomore Nicholas Pronovost (Coventry, Conn.) setting new PRs for point totals.
- Torney totalled up 5423 points over the seven events and on day two won the pole vault at 4.50 meters and finished second in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.33 seconds. On Friday, he grabbed a win in the long jump at 6.92 meters and was second in the 60-meter dash at 7.10 seconds.
- Grosse was second with a total of 5297 points, a new personal best mark. He finished second in the 1000 meters on Saturday with a time of 2:42.79, a new PR time, and on day one, won the shotput at 13.94 meters and the high jump at a height of 2.00 meters.
- Pronovost was third with 5258 points also a new PR. On Saturday, he won the 60 meter hurdles, edging Torney at 8.23 seconds, a new PR. On Friday, he had second place finishes in the long jump (6.88m) and the shotput (12.98m), setting new PR marks in both, and a third-place finish in the high jump (1.88m).
- Senior Christopher Keegan (West Hartford, Conn.) took fourth place in the weight throw with a toss of 18.25 meters.
- Fellow senior Daniel Claxton (Nesconset, N.Y.) also grabbed a fourth place finish on Saturday, clearing a height of 2.10 meters in the high jump.
- Friday's results saw sophomore Travis Snyder (Saco, Maine) finish ninth in the pole vault at 5.00 meters and junior Tyler Hrbek (Northvale, N.J.) 10th, clearing a height of 4.95 meters.
- Sophomore Richmond Kwaateng (Lowell, Mass.) took home a second-place finish in the long jump, posting his best jump of 7.36 meters on his second to last attempt to set a new PR.
- Freshman Kasey Savage (Tolland, Conn.) set a new PR in the triple jump at 14.19 meters, good for a ninth-place finish.
Up Next:
UConn will compete at two meets next weekend, taking part in the Rutgers Open and BU David Hemeery Valentine invitational.
Source: UConn Athletics
