University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Minuteman Invitational
UConn Heads to Minutemen Invite to Open Season
9/6/2019 3:22:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
STORRS, Conn. – The UConn men's cross-country team will get their 2019 season kick-started on Saturday afternoon as they take part in the UMass Minutemen Invitational.
The Huskies will run the 6K race with the host Minutemen, Sacred Heart and WPI. The race will start after the women's race at approximately 11 am.
UConn will have a youthful look this fall with no seniors on this year's roster. "We are super young," stated head coach Greg Roy. "We're racing 11 and of those 11, six are true freshman, two are middle distance guys who are really stretching to run cross country and then we've got three pretty legit upperclassmen. We don't have an all-conference returner in cross country coming back for the first time in recent memory so we are just, who knows, and that's the way I'm approaching it. We're looking at this as kind of a mini-season for the group."
The Huskies will lean on some of their upperclassmen to lead this season and r-junior Eric Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) is poised to make a jump up this season. Van Der Els won this race last season, his first collegiate victory in cross-country. He was the Huskies' second finisher at the NCAA Northeast Regional and also was a top-20 finisher at last year's AAC Championship race.
R-sophomore Will Brisman (Fairfield, Conn.) also returns to add experience. Brisman finished the year strong at the NCAA Northeast Regional with his top 10K time of the season. He finished sixth at last year's UMass race. Sophomore James Maniscalco (Fairfield, Conn.) is coming off a strong end to the outdoor track & field season that saw him compete into the summer at the USTAF Junior Championships in the 10,000 meters. He earned a ninth place finish at last year's UMass opener.
it up to them to keep it under control so they should be as fresh as they can be for this time of year.
"I want them to get out there and race with no excuses," stated Roy. "Three big question marks for us. Eric Van Der Els has raced cross-country the last two years and been on the cusp on being all conference but not quite hit that level yet. Will Brisman is a kid who I think can really be a surprise and Maniscalco raced well into the summer with the USA juniors in late June. I think James and Will both have great upside so we'll just see where they are on September 7th."
Players Mentioned
