The Huskies traveled to New York, NY this past weekend to participate in the Dr. Sander Invite Columbia Challenge, a two-day event on Friday and Saturday. The men placed first in the meet, scoring 125 points, and Columbia was behind them with 80.5. The women placed second in their meet, finishing with a score of 87 points, trailing behind Princeton, who had a dominant 133 points.
The Huskies put forth many strong performances. UConn totaled 24 top-five finishes with four athletes placing first in their event.
Freshman Dar Jankovic placed first in the high jump with a score of 2.03 meters. Travis Martin finished first in his event as well. The junior recorded a dominant time of 8:02.04 seconds in the 3000 meter, coming in first by a five-second margin.
Freshman Joshua Mooney was nothing short of incredible during the event. Mooney finished second in the heptathlon 60-meter dash with a time of 7.04 seconds, then placed second in the heptathlon long jump with a distance of 6.64 meters. If you thought Mooney was done there, you’d be wrong. He then placed second in the heptathlon shot put with a score of 12.19 meters, third in the heptathlon high jump (1.88m) and first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.28 seconds. Overall, Mooney finished first in the men’s heptathlon with an eye-popping score of 5101.
Sophomore Max Ringwall placed third in the heptathlon, recording a score of 4571, second in the heptathlon pole vault and third in the shot put and 1000-meter.
For the women, freshman Anna Connors, sophomore Jessica Starr, junior Raquel Rosa and senior Jalah Cooper placed first in the 4×400 relay and recorded a season-best time of 3:44.54 seconds.
In the meet, Huskies continued their impressive start to the 2023-24 season and look to continue their string of strong performances this upcoming weekend when they travel to Massachusetts to participate in the Crimson Elite.