University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Sorlien Invitational
Huskies Head to URI for Sorlien Memorial Invitational
1/17/2019 5:00:00 PM | Men's Track and Field
STORRS, Conn. – The UConn men's track & field team heads to the University of Rhode Island's Sorlien Memorial Invitational for an unscored meet on Saturday. The Huskies are hoping to build upon last week's win at the Beantown Challenge and continue developing with some big meets coming up on the calendar.
"The challenge in a meet like this, and I talked to our guys about this, is look, last week was easy, first meet of the year, scoring meet, lot of really good teams, great facility, how can you not be excited for that," stated head coach Greg Roy. "The challenge for us this weekend is to make sure that we can progress from last week to this week and on to next week."
"This is a great opportunity for development in a competitive environment," commented Roy. "That will be on our athletes individually with no team scoring involved."
The Huskies will focus on getting some athletes qualifying times as well as building on the success of last week's win at Harvard. The Huskies will compete with athletes from URI, Brown, UMass, Assumption, Stonehill and Southern Connecticut State. Fans can follow live results at www.plattsys.com.
Senior Ian Bergere (Madison, Conn.) will compete this Saturday after vaulting to the top of the AAC rankings in the pole vault thanks to last week's win at the Beantown Challenge. Berger matched his career-best height, winning with a height of 5.05 meters (16'6.75"), tied with Houston's Ben Percefull for tops in the league thus far.
Classmate and co-captain Malik Snead (Trenton, N.J.) is scheduled to compete in both the long jump and the triple jump, an event he is currently at the top of the AAC rankings in. Snead is coming off a win in the triple jump at the Beantown Challenge where he posted a 15.55 meter leap (51'0.25").
On the track, freshman Noah Woodman (Hampstead, N.H.), who owns the fastest 400 meter time (47.64/BU Season Opener) in the AAC to this point, will again run the 500 meters this Saturday. Woodman led a contingent of five top-eight finishers in the 500 meters that helped swing the meet for the Huskies at last weekend's Beantown Challenge. Woodman won the event with a time of 1:04.72, his first collegiate victory.
R-Sophomore Eric van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) will lead an UConn contingent in the 800 meters, looking to post qualyfing times. Van Der Els owns the fourth fastest time in the mile in the AAC this year, running 4:11.58 last weekend, just behind senior teammate Michael McGonnigle (New Fairfield, Conn.) who ran 4:11.29 in that meet.
Senior Kyle Barber (Fayetteville, N.Y.) will run in the 1,000 meters after winning the 3,000 meters at last weekend's Beantown Challenge. Barber ran the third fastest time in the conference last week, clocking an 8:33.21. Classmate PJ Garmon (Billerica, Mass.) will look to post a qualifying time in the mile.
"Definitely a bridge meet for us where we have a variety of goals for a variety of people," said the head coach. "We will be looking to focus on what's right for each of our athletes this week, with some guys resting and some competing in some off-events."
Players Mentioned
