CAMBRIDGE, Mass.- Five America East Track and Field programs competed at the New England Championships hosted by the University of Massachusetts in Amherst this weekend while University at Albany student athletes traveled to the New York City Qualifying Challenge at Icahn Stadium and Stony Brook University’s Lucy Van Dalen ran in the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet.
Highlighting the Great Danes was John Moore, who broke the school record in the 1,500-meter run with his time of 3:47.73. Moore’s time broke the previous record, set in 2005, by less than two-tenths of a second and qualified him for the NCAA East Regional Championship. The men’s and women’s squads will travel to Princeton University to compete at the IC4A and ECAC championship meets from May 15-17.
The Boston University women finished seventh at the New England Outdoor Championships this weekend, while the men tied for 11th at the meet. Senior Tahari James won the women's long jump, besting teammates Whitney Ford and Edwina Clark as the Terriers swept the top three spots in the event. On the men's side, sophomore Joel Senick won the 400m dash and senior David Proctor qualified for the NCAA Regionals with a second-place finish in the 800m run. The Terriers are back in action at the IC4A/ECAC Championships from Friday through Sunday in Princeton, N.J.
The Hawks competed at the New England Championships this weekend where the women notched 21 points for a 16th place finish out of 36 teams while the men’s team ranked 21st out of 41 squads with 13.50 points. Eight track and field athletes were named All-New England for notching top-eight finishes in seven total events. Kaycee Martinez bettered her school record in the 400-meter hurdles while running an NCAA qualifying time of 1:00.57 in the preliminaries on Friday. The junior went on to finish first in the finals with a time of 1:01.49. Martinez became just the second Hawk to qualify for NCAA postseason competition in the programs history, and will join teammate Elizabeth Foster at the East Region Championships in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 30-31.
The University of Maine men and women had successful performances at the New England Championships with the men placing 14th out of 41 teams with 25 points and the women sixth out of 36 teams with 47 points. The men were led by Mark Liimakka who posted a school-record height of 15-09 in the pole vault, and was tied for first but was declared the runner-up by a tie-breaker. Jesse Labreck was second in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 40-0.5 feet.
Wildcat Freshman Laura Stern won a title in the javelin to lead the University of New Hampshire women to a second-place finish at the 36-team New England Championships this weekend. With 79.50 points, the Wildcats finished behind Boston College (87). Stern threw the javelin an NCAA Regional-qualifying 43.55 meters to beat out the runner-up by a foot-and-a-half. For the men, Senior Reed Liset and sophomores Brice Paey each turned in second-place finishes, leading the squad to a fourth-place finish in the 41-team field. Liset was second in the discus with an IC4A Championship-qualifying throw of 49.03 meters while Paey was runner-up in the shot put with an NCAA Regional-qualifying toss of 17.67 meters.
Stony Brook’s Lucy Van Dalen won the 1,500-meter run at the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet on Monday night, smashing her previous school record by nearly eight seconds with a time of 4:13.72. The time seeds her fifth in the country in the event, qualifying the sophomore to join twin sister Holly and classmate Carolina Cortes at the NCAA Regionals in North Carolina.
The Vermont men and women earned 17 All-New England citations and broke three school records at the New England Championships with the women placing 14th out of 36 teams, and the men 29th out of 41. The relay teams carried the men's squad with the 4x100 and 4x800 teams earning All-New England honors. Justin Scricca, Cameron Grant, Phil Cohen and Raheen Bush posted a fifth place finish in the 4x100 relay with a time of 42.07. Junior Jan Carlson set a new school record in the preliminary heats of the 100 meters with a time of 11.88 to move into the finals. Carlson's time broke the old mark of 11.98 set by Chris Boehmer 22 years ago in 1987 and gives her six school records in her career. Carlson earned third overall with a time of 11.95 and earned All-New England honors. For the third straight week, officials needed to break her time down to the thousands of a second to determine the order of finish between Carlson and another runner.