UConn Trio Set for NCAA Championships

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STORRS, Conn. – The UConn men's track & field team will send three Huskies to compete at the 2021 NCAA Championships at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field this week. Seniors Jordan Torney (Toms River, N.J.) and Safir Scott (Greenwich, Conn.) and sophomore Travis Snyder (Saco, Maine) will be headed to Eugene to represent UConn at the 2021 national title meet.

Torney will compete in the decathlon on Wednesday and Thursday, June 9 and 10. Both Scott and Snyder, competing in the long jump and pole vault, respectively, are scheduled to compete on Wednesday evening.

The event will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks with Torney, Scott and Snyder's events all being shown on ESPN3.

Torney qualified for the championship meet after winning the gold in the decathlon at the BIG EAST Championship with a new career-high point total. Both Scott and Snyder advanced to the NCAA Championship meet via their performance at the NCAA Preliminary meet in Jacksonville, Florida two weeks ago.

A team captain this season, Torney is making his first trip to the NCAA Championship, a goal that has been on his radar and one he is excited to be reaching. "I kind of see it like the 'Big Dance'," said Torney. "This is what you have been training for. That's the goal, to get to this meet. And it's such a historic place and historic field and being able to get the chance to compete there is going to be great"

Torney had his best ever decathlon performance at the BIG EAST title meet, posting 7,492 total points while winning six of the 10 events. He was named the BIG EAST Male Field Performer of the Meet.

On day one, he won the long jump with a leap of 7.36 meters, a new PR, and the 100-meter dash and the 400 meters. He came back on day two to take the 1,500 meters at 4:42.95, a new PR, the pole vault and the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.36 seconds.

Torney came to Storrs as a decathlete and has improved his score every time he has competed for the Huskies dating back to the 2018 season. "UConn was the only school that recruited me as a decathlete and that is what I wanted to do," stated Torney. "Coming to UConn, I had to learn everything. I had the hurdles, the long jump and the 400 down, but had to pick up everything else. Every year, I just aimed to get better. Set my goals and work to accomplish them and just keep moving forward."

His love for the decathlon goes back to his time in high school. "It really started for me when Ashton Eaton broke the world record and really put the decathlon on the map for me," said Torney. "That's when I got interested. I was already doing all these different events and I figured let's try this out."

Ten events over two days on the track and in the field is not an easy task and that's why Torney does it. "I love how hard it is," stated the senior. "Not everyone can do it. How versatile you have to be, it really encompasses all of track and field."

Scott will be making his second trip to the NCAA Championship meet and to Eugene, giving him an advantage when it comes to knowing what to expect. "Going to Oregon already, I know two things: Be prepared for the weather to change and be prepared for the marks you see going into it, those will change," commented Scott. "You have to think about yourself and your plan and putting yourself in a good position."

The senior jumper qualified for the championship in the long jump at the NCAA Prelim, finishing sixth place overall and had his best jump of the day on his final attempt to make the cut. The senior came up with a leap of 7.64 meters, setting a new PR and also coming close to the school record as well (7.69m – Mike Christy/1996). During his freshman season in 2018, Scott went to the NCAA Championship in the high jump.

Scott had a huge BIG EAST Championship in helping lead the Huskies to their fifth conference championship. He was the BIG EAST High Point Performer of the Meet, scoring in three events, winning the 400 meters, taking second in the long jump and was fourth in the triple jump to total 23 points in the meet.

"You train all season for two things," said Scott. "A conference championship and then you train to become an All-American. We got through the regional meet and now into the national meet. And from there it's the people who are happy to get there, then those who go but don't perform that well and those who get there and have a plan to succeed."

In a spring that was challenging in many ways, Scott is headed to his second NCAA meet in great shape and ready to make his presence felt. "I am feeling great," commented Scott. "It was a long season for me, battling some nicks and tweaks here and there but body wise, I am as healthy as I have been all season. I get to compete in a flight with the top competitors in this event which is going to help me really focus on what I need to do.

For UConn's Snyder, his freshman season was cut short after indoor season due to the pandemic so the 2021 season was his first chance to get outdoors to vault. With uncertainty and Covid protocols in place to start this season, it took Snyder a while to get going on the way to a standout spring campaign.

"It was a slow start for me this spring," stated Snyder. "Without the indoor season and with the pandemic, it made it really hard to get going early on. I found a rhythm in the middle of the season and kept getting better and better."

At the NCAA Prelims two weeks ago, Snyder took ninth overall in the field and cleared a height of 5.25 meters on his second attempt. Snyder passed at the opening height and then cleared 5.00m and 5.15m on his first attempts.

At the BIG EAST Championship, claiming the title with a height of 5.05 meters. His best height this spring and of his career came in the weeks before the conference meet when the team headed down south for the final time of the spring. At the Torrin Lawrence Memorial down at Georgia at the start of May when he cleared a height of 5.28 meters. "Being able to travel down to some better weather definitely helped this spring in finding a good rhythm," stated Snyder.

The sophomore follows the last Husky pole vaulter to make to the NCAA Championship in Craig Hunter who was there in 2018 and was a three time All-American in the event. For Snyder, getting to the final NCAA meet of the season has always been the goal. He also wants to make some UConn history of his own.

"The end goal is to make it here and get the chance to compete against the best of the best. That's what it's all about. There is a great history of pole vaulters at UConn and I not only want to follow in their footsteps but get out there and one-up them if I can," said the sophomore.

All three Huskies will be out to put the finishing touches on what has been one of the most successful outdoor track seasons for the UConn men's program.

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Players Mentioned

Safir Scott

Travis Snyder

Jordan Torney

University of Connecticut Athletics