The UConn men’s and women’s track and field teams received over a month of rest in between Sunday’s UMass Invite and early December’s Joe Donahue Invitational, but there was certainly no sign of rust from the Huskies. Several Connecticut runners excelled at the Track at New Balance, setting podium marks and personal bests.
“We had a lot of heat champions and a lot of good personal bests. My favorite thing that I took away from the day was we just had a really good competitive spirit across the board,” said Track & Field Director Beth Alford-Sullivan after Sunday’s meet.
Leading the way for the women in track events was Mia Dansby. The first-year phenom broke two of her personal records, finishing the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash in 8.77 seconds and 24.83 seconds, respectively. Both marks were enough to put the young runner in the top five for both events.
In the mile run, it was the Celia Chacko show, as the senior was top dog with a time of 5:01.45. In the Flagship mile run, the cross country trio of Randi Burr, Chloe Thomas and Jenna Zydanowicz took home second, third and fourth place with sub-five-minute times. Burr’s time of 4:50.26 was a new personal best.
In the field, Patricia Mroczkowski excelled in the high jump, placing second with a jump of 1.61 meters. Sophomore Kalli Knott also took home a silver, clearing 3.80 meters in the pole vault. Fellow Husky Sofia Wittman wasn’t too far behind her, clearing 3.65 meters.
Also placing podium for the Huskies were A’liyah Thomas and Jasmine Barrow, who earned third overall for the long jump and triple jump, respectively.
For the men, Terrel Williams thrived, notching a new personal record of 7.77 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. Two Huskies finished first overall in track events: Wellington Ventura in the 500-meter and James Maniscalco in the mile run. Ventura clocked in at 1:03.33, while Maniscalco ended with 4:12.62.
In the field, three UConn athletes ended their day atop the podium in the triple jump, with Kasey Savage, Marc Morrison and Joron Harrell placing first, second and third, respectively. Savage’s winning mark was 14.52 meters. Another gold-medalist for the Huskies was Matthew Brady, topping all shot put throwers with a distance of 16.37 meters.
Connecticut has a chance to build upon their successes this weekend with strong showings at the Boston College Eagle Elite Invitational and the Battle of Beantown on Friday and Saturday, respectively.