University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
American Athletic Conference Championship
Pair of Huskies Named All-AAC as UConn Finishes 3rd
11/1/2019 3:01:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The UConn men's cross-country team took home a third place finish at the 2019 American Athletic Conference Championship on Friday morning. The Huskies had a pair of All-AAC performances from r-junior Eric Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) and r-sophomore Will Brisman (Fairfield, Conn.) who both posted their best-ever finishes at the conference title race.
The Huskies, running in their final AAC Championship, ran the 8k course at Shelby Farms Park. Van Der Els recorded his all-conference performance thanks to an eighth-place finish on the 8k course. The r-junior ran the course in 24:25.65. Brisman came home in 14th place with a time of 24:33 to also be named to the All-AAC team.
"We were really aggressive, probably the most of any team in the race," stated director of cross country and track & field Greg Roy. "Tulsa is really good, heck No. 6 in the country. They sat back and then kind of rolled through. We went out there and went after it. Temple too, they ran a great race and pulled away."
Tulsa won their sixth-straight AAC title, topping the field with 20 points and their top-finishers in the two through six spots. Temple ran in second with 68 points followed by the Huskies with 110 points. Cincinnati was fourth followed by Wichita State, ECU, Memphis, Houston, Tulane and USF.
"We lost our top-5 guys from last year and you look at how we performed today, and had two freshmen in a scoring position," commented Roy. "We were right there and really competed. I am really proud of the way we went after it. I was really, really pleased."
R-sophomore James Maniscalco (Fairfield, Conn.) had his best-ever finish at the AAC race by coming in 20th overall and ran the course in 24:54. Freshmen Kabir Chavan (Fairfield, Conn.) and Angel Vicioso (Norwalk, Conn.) rounded out the UConn top-five finishers.
Chavan was in 30th place with a time of 25:24 and Vicioso was in 38th overall with a time of 25:45.
"This season was the first time in my career we didn't have an all-conference guy coming back and with a team that is so young, the way we handled this season and performed, I am really excited about the future."
The Huskies will next run in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship on November 15 in Buffalo, N.Y. at the Audubon Golf Course.
Players Mentioned
