The UConn men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to have two meets this weekend taking place Friday, Feb. 14 and Saturday, Feb. 15, as they prepare for the Big East Indoor Championships, right around the corner.
On Friday, both squads are set to take on Boston University in the David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
The men’s meet is set to commence on Friday at 9 a.m., with the track events ending at 2 p.m. The field events will kick off shortly after and end at 6:40 p.m.
On Saturday, the women’s events open with the running events at 9 a.m. and field events at 10 a.m., and end with the field events at 2 p.m. and the running events at 6:30 p.m.
The men competing for the Huskies are Samuel Geisler, Alec Sauter and Griffin Mandirola in the one-mile run, Sean Ahern in the 3000-meter run and Mahamed Sharif in the 800-meter run.
The women competing for UConn are Danielle Adams, Calista Mayer, Ally McCarthy and Megan Perrotta in the 800-meter run, Sarah Trainor in the 1000-meter run, Loghan Hughes, Malin Rahm and Jenna Zydanowicz in the 3000-meter run, Caroline Webb in the 5000-meter run, and Claire Paci, Madison Relyea and Rachael Woodruff in the one-mile run. Paci and Mandirola joined UConn this year and the rest of the team attending the meet have been at UConn for at least a year.
Then, on Saturday, is the Giegengack Invitational held by Yale University. With the field events kicking off at 8:30 a.m. while the running events kick off at 12 p.m.
The field events start out with the men and women’s shot put and ends with the men and women’s pole vault. The running events start with the women’s mile at noon followed by the men’s mile at 12:20 p.m. and ends with the women’s 4×400 relay at 4:55 p.m. and men’s 4×400 relay at 5:10 p.m.
Some of UConn’s top performers from the 2024 Giegengack Invitational were Damon Simpson and Noble Gongon who ran first and second in the men’s 60-meter final. In addition, Travis Roux placed first in the men’s weight throw with 20.02 meters. Then there’s Sinclaire Fryer, who placed first in the women’s shot put or Mia Dansby who placed second in the women’s 60-meters final.
In the USTFCCCA regional TFRI rankings, UConn’s men’s and women’s teams are top two in the rankings. The men’s indoor team has the top spot, while the women’s indoor team is second in the region, only being led by Harvard.
The consistency of the event squads has led to the high rankings with the men’s triple jump ranked second, men’s heptathlon ranking third, and the men’s long jump being ranked seventh. The women’s pentathlon team have also been very good, being ranked eighth.