University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championship
Huskies Take Second at BIG EAST Championship
5/15/2021 7:26:00 PM | Women's Track and Field
2021 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP FULL RESULTS
GENEVA, Ohio – The UConn women's track and field team finished as the 2021 BIG EAST Outdoor Championship runner-up in the program's official return to the conference this weekend at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
The Huskies set a new program high by piling up 157.5 total points on the weekend. UConn had nine medal winning performances including three individual titles at the meet.
On Saturday, freshman Jasmine Barrow (Athens, Ga.) took home the gold medal in the triple jump. Friday's winners included senior Taylor Woods (Marlboro, Md.) in the long jump and junior Emma Chee (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) in the pole vault.
"A lot of truly great performances but we just came up a bit short of that team title," stated associate head coach Rich Miller. "Taylor Woods was great this weekend and Emma Chee winning pole vault on Friday was a great accomplishment. It was great to see Mia Nahom who was tremendous with a pair of second place finishes and a school record. Shanelle Colmon had a great double on Saturday with a second and third and Chanell Botsis who scored in three field events."
"The take-away was this team never gave up. When something didn't go our way, we kept going and kept fighting. Kept stepping up and kept going. I thought we battled right down to the wire and really put it all out there."
"The women have had a great season and it may be one of those things where you don't know what it takes to win a championship until you compete for one," commented Miller.  "We had a lot of younger kids get to experience it, and see what it takes. We are better today than we were two days ago from this weekend's experience. This is the standard and what it will take."
Villanova came back to win the championship with a total of 197.50 points followed by the Huskies. In third was St. John's (99 pts) and Butler took fourth (96 pts), DePaul was fifth (90 pts) and Marquette sixth (84 pts). Rounding out the field was Georgetown in seventh (73 pts), Providence in eighth (50 pts) and Xavier in ninth (9 pts).
SATURDAY FINALS…
On the track
- Senior Mia Nahom (New Fairfield, Conn.) took home her second silver of the weekend, finishing second in the 5,000 meters in a time of 16:11.82. Junior Randi Burr (Westerly, R.I.) scored with an eighth-place finish in a time of 16:36.66.
- Junior Shanelle Colmon (East Brunswick, N.J.) had a big Saturday, winning a pair of medals for the Huskies. Colmon took silver in the 200 meters and set a new PR with a time of 23.67 seconds. She also scored a bronze in the 400 meters with a time of 54.15 seconds, also a new PR.
- In the 100-meter dash, senior Taylor Woods (Marlboro, Md.) was fourth in a time of 11.90 seconds, a new PR.
- In the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Elise O'Leary (Milton, Mass.) set a new PR with a time of 1:03.56 to take fourth. Freshman Ta'Jae Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill.) was seventh at 1:06.73.
In the field
- After a fourth-place finish in the long jump on Friday, Barrow came back on Saturday and took home the gold in the triple jump. Barrow matched her previous PR with a leap of 12.27 meters. Picking up a bronze was classmate Felicia Quainoo (Metuchen, N.J.) who put in a jump of 11.57 meters. Sophomore Jamie Kobus (Princeton Junction, N.J.) was sixth (11.41m) and sophomore Akayla Leak (Burlington, N.J.) was eighth (11.25m).
- Sophomore Patricia Mroczkowski (Berlin, Conn.) won the bronze in the high jump, clearing the bar at 1.75 meters, her best jump this spring and just under her PR. Taylor Pannell (Middletown, N.Y.) was sixth (1.70m) and senior Kelly Ward (Oxford, Conn.) was eighth (1.65m) to score for UConn.
- Senior Chanell Botsis (Coquitlam, British Columbia) scored in her third event on the weekend, posting a seventh-place finish in the discus at 41.03 meters, a new PR.
- Senior Kelly Ward (Oxford, Conn.) was a fourth-place finisher in the heptathlon with a total of 4,851 points, a new career-best point total.
Players Mentioned
