Huskies Record Strong Results at Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge Invite

Friday, January 26

New York, NY

University of Connecticut

Dr. Sander Invite

Photo by: UConn Athletics

Huskies Record Strong Results at Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge Invite

1/27/2024 9:05:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The University of Connecticut men's and women's track and field teams put up solid performances at the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge Invite in a two-day competition at The Armory Track and Field Center in New York City.

The UConn men won in the team score with 125 points with Columbia placing second with 80.5 points and North Carolina A&T in third with 66 points. The UConn women took second in the team score with 87 points behind first place Princeton with 133 points. Albany tied for third with Brown collecting 54 points, respectively.

In total, UConn had 24 results place in the top-five for both men and women including seven personal records and four first-place results.

"The Armory is just a classic, traditional indoor track and field venue and we had another great competition for the third week in a row," commented Director of Track and Field Beth Alford-Sullivan. "We entered this competition to not only win, but to be competitive and we really were all the way through. We had great performances across the board."

On the men's side, freshman Josh Mooney recorded a massive total in the men's heptathlon with the top score of 5101 securing a meet record result in the heptathlon 60m dash running 7.04 seconds and taking second place. Then also placing second in the heptathlon long jump going 6.64m along with second place in the heptathlon shot put (12.19m), third place in the heptathlon high jump (1.88m), and a first-place time in the 60-meter hurdles (8.28). Also, sophomore Max Ringwall took third in the heptathlon with a total score of 4571 taking top-five results in the heptathlon pole vault (2nd,4.10m), the shot put (3rd, 11.83m), and the 1000 (3rd, 2:55.04).

Senior Terrel Williams tied his personal best in the 60-meter hurdles running a time of 7.71 seconds, securing second place. In the 4x400 relay, graduate student Joseph O'Brien, sophomore Anish Rajamanickam, sophomore Mekhi Stone, and freshman OJ Singletary finished second with a new season best time of 3:14.56 seconds. On top of that, graduate transfer Travis Martin ran another strong race in the 3000 with a personal best and a first-place time of 8:02.04.

On the women's side, senior Caroline Towle broke the meet record in the 5000m taking a fourth-place time of 16:36.16. Junior Jailya Ash shattered her previous personal record in the 60-meter hurdles finishing in first and running a time of 8.19 seconds. To follow that, junior A'liyah Thomas also broke a personal record in the event taking fourth with a result of 8.37 seconds.

Then, senior Jenna Zydanowicz set a new personal record in the 3000 for a second-place result of 9:16.04. Additionally, in the 4x400 relay, sophomore Jessica Starr, senior Jalah Cooper, freshman Anna Connors, and junior Raquel Rosa recorded a season best time of 3:44.54 and took first in the event.

Up Next

The Huskies will split squads on Friday, Feb. 2 and Saturday, Feb. 3 for the Crimson Elite in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday and Scarlett and White Invite on Saturday in Boston.

At Dr. Sander Invite Day 1

For the men:

Joron Harrell in TJ (3rd, 14.79m)

Travis Snyder in PV (2nd, 5.20m)

Marc Morrison in LJ (2nd, 7.38m), PR for Kasey Savage (3rd, 7.30m), Kyle Johnson (5th, 7.16m)

Season best for Chris Lepore in 5000m (5th, 14:10.17)

Noble Gongon in 60m (3rd, 6.81)

For the women:

Danielle Phillip in 60m (5th, 7.82)

T-PR for Jasmine Barrow in LJ (2nd, 6.02m)

Day 2

For the men: