University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
IC4A Championship
Huskies Look to Defend IC4A Title This Weekend
2/28/2019 1:50:00 PM | Men's Track and Field
STORRS, Conn. – The UConn Huskies will head up to Boston University this weekend to defend their IC4A Championship. The Huskies claimed the 2018 indoor crown, their third IC4A crown in program history, and had a total of 13 All-East performances at last year's meet.
Fans can follow all the action this weekend by visiting the ECAC/IC4A Meet Central
"We are going with a pretty straight up and down lineup this weekend and we are excited to compete," stated head coach Greg Roy. "This is a great meet and of course we want to win it again. At the end of the weekend, you'll see that tThe performances at the top end will be really good. We feel great and we are ready to go."
The three-day, 20-event championship meet will be held at the BU Track & Tennis Center in Boston where at least one Husky will be entered in every event.Â
The Huskies are coming off competing at the 2019 American Athletic Conference Championship last weekend where despite finishing sixth had several top performances. UConn senior Malik Snead (Trenton, N.J.) and sophomore Tyler Gleen (Norwalk, Conn.) both took home individual titles last weekend.
"Our guys like to compete and get after it," said the head coach. "No question, we were disappointed with our sixth place finish last week as a team but I think if you asked each of our guys, I think many were happy with how they competed. I thought we competed really well individually last weekend, but we just didn't have enough juice in the end as a team."
Snead successfully defended his triple jump crown, winning with a mark that was just short of his season best mark. Snead topped the field with a leap of 15.75 meters (51'8.25"), coming on his second to last attempt of the day.
Gleen claimed his first-career AAC title with a first place finish in the 800 meters, an event he took fifth in last year. Gleen took home gold in career-best fashion, torching the track in a time of 1:49.39, a new personal best in the event.
The weekend kicks-off on Friday afternoon with the heptathlon where UConn sophomore Benjamin Grosse (Wayzata, Minn.) will compete coming off a career-best performance. Grosse had a personal best in the heptathlon last weekend, posting 4,989 points to finish fifth. Grosse won the high jump on Friday and finished second in the 1,000 meters on Saturday.Â
Saturday will feature the conclusion of the heptathlon and the finals in the weight throw, high jump and long jump and 5,000 meters while Sunday features the finals on the track as well as the pole vault, shot put and triple jump.
The Huskies are particularly excited for this year's three relays, the 4x400, 4x800 and distance medley. "Our mid distance and distance guys are really fired up," stated Roy. "We have trails and finals in those relays and that's something that we don't really see. So our guys are embracing the challenge and seeing if we can get to the finals and from there, we will see what our best line-ups look like."
Players Mentioned
