UConn Men Capture 4th-Straight IC4A Crown

Friday, March 4

Centerville, Mass.

All Day

University of Connecticut

IC4A Indoor Track & Field Championship

3/6/2022 5:21:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

IC4A/ECAC Final Results

BOSTON, Mass. – The UConn men's track & field team closed out the 2022 indoor season on Sunday by capturing their fourth-straight IC4A Championship, winning the title at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center.

The Huskies claim the program's sixth IC4A Indoor Championship after piling up 112.5 points on the weekend, finishing ahead of Northeastern in second with 73 points. UConn won six events and had three school records fall on the way to the team victory.

"A tremendous weekend following up our two BIG EAST Champsionships last weekend," stated Associate Head Coach Rich Miller. "The men put forth a dominating performance highlighted by three school record setting performances from Eric Van Der Els, Wellington Ventura and Travis Snyder. It was just a show of our strength as a team and our competitiveness to get this one."

"Overall, a great team performance all around from both the men and women. I feel like we continue to get better and show tremendous character and grit on both sides. A great weekend all around."

UConn built a big lead on Saturday with the field athletes dominating with wins by Benjamin Grosse (Wayzata, Minn.) in the heptathlon, Daniel Claxton (Nesconset, N.Y.) in the high jump, Chris Keegan (West Hartford, Conn.) in the weight throw and Travis Snyder (Saco, Maine) in the pole vault, setting a new school record.

On the track, senior Erick Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) broke the school record in the 1,000 meters in both the prelims and the final to take home the gold in the event. Freshman Terrel Williams (Maplewood, N.J.) followed Van Der Els to the top of the podium with a win in in the 60-meter hurdles on Sunday. UConn junior Wellington Ventura (Cresskill, N.J.) set a new school mark in the 500 meters on Saturday as well.

On the Track…

Van Der Els broke the school record in the 1,000 meters in Saturday's prelim (2:21.76) and did it again on Sunday, winning gold by clocking in at 2:21.39
UConn's first gold of the day on Sunday went to Williams in the 60 meters hurdles after blazing his way to a first-place finish inn 7.82 seconds, just .01 off his best-ever time. Junior Nicholas Pronovost (Coventry, Conn.) took home points thanks to a seventh-place finish at 8.18 seconds.
In the 400 meters, junior Noah Woodman (Hampstead, N.H.) was a silver medal winner thanks to his 47.34 second showing, his fastest time this indoor season.
Junior Kevin Cawley (Massapequa, N.Y.) took fourth place in the 3,000 meters recording a new PR with at time of 8:05.61.
In the 800 meters, Stephen Sutton (Tolland, Conn.) and Marzio Mastroianni (Branford, Conn.) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at 1:53.95 and 2:01.05
On Saturday, senior James Maniscalco (Fairfield, Conn.) took fourth in the 5000 meters with a time of 14:15.39.

In the Field…

Senior Matthew Brady (Biddeford, Maine) won the silver in the shot put on Sunday, posting a throw of 16.58 meters.
On Saturday, Snyder took home gold in the pole vault for the second time at IC4As on Saturday and did so in setting a new school record by clearing a height of 5.40 meters. Snyder cleared the bar on his second attempt, breaking the mark of 5.36 meters set by Craig Hunter in 2015.
In the weight throw, Chris Keegan (West Hartford, Conn.) won the event by posting a new PR thanks to a throw of 19.37 meters.
In the high jump, Daniel Claxton (Nesconset, N.Y.) won another IC4A title by clearing a height of 2.11 meters, hitting the mark on his second attempt.
Senior Benjamin Grosse (Wayzata, Minn.) won the IC4A heptathlon for the second time in his career, topping the field with 5,345 points, a new PR for total points. Grosse won five of the seven events, including the 60-meter dash in 7.26 seconds, the shot put in 13.74 meters, the high jump in 1.98 meters, the 60-meter hurdles in 8.40 seconds and the pole vault in 4.06 meters.
In the long jump, freshman Richmond Kwaateng (Lowell, Mass.) was third overall with a leap of 7.33 meters.