University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
New England Championship
New England Championship Neighborhood Meet on Tap for the Huskies
1/31/2019 4:40:00 PM | Men's Track and Field
STORRS, Conn. – The UConn men's track & field team will have the opportunity to reclaim the top-spot in the region when they head up to Boston's Reggie Lewis Center for the 51st New England Indoor Championships this weekend.
The two-day meet kicks-off on Friday morning with the heptathlon and the will conclude on Saturday with this year's champion being crowned. For meet information, schedule and results visit NEICAAA.net.
Last winter, the Huskies returned to the event that they have historically dominated for the first time since the 2013 season. After building a lead on day one, UConn couldn't hold off Northeastern on day two, coming up just short of claiming their 23rd New England title, falling 164 to 162.33. To take that championship trophy back to Storrs, head coach Greg Roy knows his Huskies have a challenging weekend in front of them.
"I think we sharpened our knives a little earlier this year," commented Roy. "We added in a meet that we didn't have last year. This year, we know what to expect. Last year, New England's was a new addition to our schedule and with always looking down the road to conference championship, I think we were a little short on preparedness for this meet last year and I think we paid the price for it.
"That being said, we are still very young. We are going to have to compete very well to win this thing. We will be more ready for this meet this year than we were last year, no question."
Senior Malik Snead (Trenton, N.J.) will look to defend his long jump and triple jump New England titles he won at last year's meet. Snead enters the weekend ranked first in the American with his best leap of the season coming at the Beantown Challenge at 15.55 meters (51'0.25").
In the weight throw, junior Cameron Thompson (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) is among the top-ranked in this weekend's field and had a career-best throw at the Beantown meet earlier this winter at 17.90 meters (58'8.75"). He is currently sixth in the AAC rankings. In the shot put, sophomore Todd Stueber (Toms River, N.J.) continues to improve every time out and enters the weekend second in the New England field in the event. He is sixth in AAC rankings after his season-best toss of 16.85 meters (55'3.5") at the URI meet.
In the pole vault, senior Ian Bergere (Madison, Conn.) has had a solid start to the indoor season and comes in atop the New England meet rankings with a season-best height of 5.05 meters (16'6.75") on his ledger. He finished second at last year's New England meet. In the high jump, sophomore Daniel Claxton (Nesconset, N.Y.) is atop the New England field competing with a season-best jump of 2.13 meters (6'11.75") recorded at the Beantown Challenge. He took fifth at last year's event.
Sophomore Benjamin Grosse (Wayzata, Minn.) will compete in the heptathlon for the first time since winning the UConn Multi-Event Challenge in early December. Grosse bested the field that day with 4,945 points, a career-best outing. He finished fourth at last year's New England meet with 4,600 points.
On the track, the Huskies will look to defend their New England titles in both the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays and come in with the fastest times in the region on record this winter as well as their title in the distance medley relay.
Senior Michael McGonnigle (New Fairfield, Conn.) is coming off a career-best showing in the 3,000 meters at last week's Columbia Challenge and will have the top time heading into the event this weekend. He clocked in at 8:09.53 and is currently tops in the AAC rankings as well. Classmate Kyle Barber (Fayetteville, N.Y.) enters the weekend with the top times in the region for the 1,000 meters (2:24.95) and mile (4:09.40)
Senior Kyle Trocki (Shrewsbury, Mass.) has done a great job leading the Husky contingent in the event all season and will again this weekend along with freshman Noah Woodman (Hampstead, N.H.). The rookie Woodman has the top-time in the field this indoor season at 47.64 seconds, also ranking fourth in the AAC.
"We are excited, really excited," commented the head coach. "This meet is a cornerstone of our program's success over the years." From the 1994 through 2013 seasons, the Huskies won 19 of 20 New England Championships.
"It's a type of meet where a younger guy can see some success in a championship setting and maybe three weeks from now that pays off. We've got young guys all over the board and we are excited to see what they can do and we expect them to score points for us. I think what we have done as a team and individually the past two weekends have moved us in a very positive direction."
The Huskies will next take part in the Valentine Invitational at Boston University next weekends they continue to build toward the AAC Championship at the end of February.
Players Mentioned
