University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Beantown Challenge
Huskies Get Regional Test at Beantown Challenge
1/11/2019 3:46:00 PM | Men's Track and Field
Watch Live on ESPN+ | Live Results
STORRS, Conn. – The UConn men's track and field team will put the 2019 indoor season into full swing this weekend with the first regional test and scored meet of the year at the Beantown Challenge.Â
The Huskies head to Harvard University's Gordon Indoor Track on Saturday to compete with some of the top track programs in the Northeast. The Beantown Challenge will feature the host Crimson, the Huskies, Northeastern, UMass Lowell, Cornell, Brown, Massachusetts, Boston College, Stonehill, Rhode Island and Holy Cross. "These are some of the top programs in the Northeast," stated associate head coach Rich Miller. "We are going to see the top competition in the region this weekend."
"They wanted to bring the best athletes from the northeast together for a chance to compete in early season competition, and have a chance to evaluate, go head to head, and set a tone for the season," said Miller. "Each of these teams is trying to do that right now."
The meet will get underway at 11 am and fans can follow all the action online at ESPN+ and with LIVE RESULTS
This Saturday's meet will be a scored meet and the goal for the head coach Greg Roy and the Huskies is to see where the team stands in the early portion of the season. "It's a scoring meet and we are going to try and find some guys who understand what scoring points is all about," stated Roy. "We will be evaluating them based on how well they compete with a win or a loss on the line."
The Huskies will have virtually their entire team available for Saturday's first competition of 2019. R-sophomore Eric van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) will enter the mile seeded first while the Huskies 4x880 yard relay team is also a top-seed on the track. In the field events, senior Malik Snead (Trenton, N.J.) is the top-seed in the triple jump.Â
"I am excited to again see what our freshmen class can do and excited to see Malik competing in the triple jump and Eric van der Els in the mile," stated the head coach. "You can only go so far in eight weeks, so how are we competing against this competition and we will have to compete well to come home with a win."
The Huskies will see get to see plenty of these regional foes and athletes throughout the winter as they head toward the New England Championships at the beginning of February and then the IC4A Championships where they will look to defend their title from last year at the start of March.
"We have had 10 days back so some of the rust has been knocked off. We have worked hard but we have an eye toward the fact we are competing in a scoring meet first time out," stated Roy. "We want to see where our starting point is as a team and then individually and then moving forward we lay our plan out from this point forward."
"This is the first step in finding out if we are a championship level program and expectations are that we are," commented Miller. "We are going to put our athletes to the test and see where we stand at the end of the day. We have no intentions to go in here without putting ourselves in the position to win the meet. The December meets were a chance for us to evaluate how our fall went and we felt really good about how our fall went. This is the start of a new season."
Players Mentioned
