May 9, 2009

Complete Results

AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass men's track and field team finished second at the New England Championship over the weekend, edged out by Rhode Island. The men finished with 80 points while the Rams ended day two with 103. The performance of day two came from juniors Sonny Gamble (Marlborough, Mass.) and Sean Duncan (Gardner, Mass.) who finished one, two in the steeplechase with respective times of 9:14.36 and 9:16.22. The win gave UMass a shot at taking over first before Rhode Island pulled away with field events.

The relay squads scored major points for the Minutemen, as the 4X8 finished fourth and the 4X4 ranked eighth. The 4X800 meter crossed in 7:43.11, while the 4X400 meter crossed in 3:17.36, a season-best for the Minutemen.

In the field, Brian Miller had a great day, notching a second place finish in the high jump with a mark of 6-06.75. Not scoring in the field, David McKenna threw the discus 135-11 for a 13th place finish. Freshman Daniel Wu took 14th in the triple jump with a season-best mark of 43-09.75.

On the track, freshman Zach Koncki (Northampton, Mass.) finished seventh in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.36. Junior Ryan DiOrio (Bridgewater, N.J.) ranked ninth in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:52.65, a team-best on the season. Sophomore Scott VanderMolen (Tully, N.Y.) finished just behind with a time of 1:52.75.

Sophomore Chris Dzidek (Chicopee, Mass.) ranked ninth in the decathlon with a score of 5468. He was as high as seventh, spending most of the meet at eighth. Sophomore Zach Gordon (Pittsfield, Mass.) ranked 21st overall, first on the team, in the 1500 meter run with a time of 3:58.56. Senior Kevin Quadrozzi (Pittsfield, Mass.) finished right behind in 23rd, just missing his season-best time by .01 with a mark of 3:58.82.

The Minutemen stood at first after day one with a score of 46. New Hampshire was in second with 29 points. Junior Andrew McCann (Fayetteville, N.Y.) ranked first in the 10,000 meter with a time of 31:22.60 to garner 10 points for the Minutemen. In the 5,000 meter run, Jonathan Pierce (Hanover, Mass.) finished second after leading most of the way, crossing the finish line in 14:40.33.

On day one, in the javelin, junior Chris Vercollone (Burlington, Mass.) posted a season-best toss of 189-02 for the bronze medal. Also in the field, Koncki long jumped 22-09.75 for a fourth place finish and five points. Sophomore Sean Busch (Stow, Mass.) scored four points on day one for the Minutemen with a vault of 15-03.00 for a fifth place finish.

Also, new UMass Facility records were set in the men's 100 meter dash, 200 meter, and 800 meter run. Steve Headley of Springfield College finished the 100 in 10.39 on day two, 10.54 in the preliminaries, to break Jeff Smith's (Boston College) previous record of 10.56 set last year. The time was the second best in New England this season and just missed setting a New England Championship record. Torrey Price of Stonehill set a new facility record in the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.46. In the 800 meter, Charles Dewey of Providence ran a 1:48.77, breaking William Rhea's previous record of 1:51.73. 1

The Minutemen travel to Princeton, N.J. for the IC4A Championship held at Princeton University next weekend. Events commence at 10:00 a.m. Friday.