Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Athletics | URI’s Karlee Fowler competes in pole vault
On Friday, Feb. 2, the URI track and field programs traveled to Boston for the New England Championship. The women’s team finished in fourth and the men’s placed third. URI and Northeastern were the only schools to have both teams place top four.
The women’s track and field team finished with 57 team points, placing behind Dartmouth, Boston College, and this year’s champion, Northeastern. The relay team of Kristina MacLure, Keilan Nova, Mikaila Amerantes and Greta Scott won the 4×400-meter relay with an ECAC-qualifying time of 3:44.28, which is the teams fourth best mark all-time. Amerantes also finished second in the 500-meter dash finals, clocking in at 1:14.01, breaking a junior class record as well as URI’s fourth-best individual mark all-time. Scott placed third in the 200-meter dash finals with a personal best record and ECAC-qualifying time of 24.90 seconds.
Karlee Fowler was runner-up for pole-vault, clearing a height of 12’5.5”. Katie McNulty finished the 1000-meter finals in 2:53.34, good for fourth place. Her time, which was a personal best, marked the sixth-best URI individual all-time. MacLure finished with both a personal best as well as an ECAC-qualifying mark. Her time was 8.81 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles finals, where she placed fifth.
The men’s team ended up with 113 points, finishing behind Connecticut and Northeastern. Nigel Hill placed first in the 200-meter dash finals, with a time of 21.44 seconds. Hill also came in second in the 60-meter dash finals, clocking in at 6.79 seconds. For the long jump, Casey Burley and Childress Cannon finished seventh and eighth, marking 23’ 5.5” and 23’ 4.5”. Burley also placed second in the triple jump with a mark of 50’ 4”. After the New England Championship, Burley earned Atlantic 10 field performer of the week honors.
Other impressive times for the men’s team was Drew Nealey finishing the heptathlon with 5219 points, placing second. He also placed first in the pole vault (14’9”), second in the 60-meter hurdles (8.77 seconds), and third in the 100-meters dash (2:44.57). Eric Wicks placed second in the high jump with a mark of 6’ 10.25”. In the 4×400-meter relay, the team of Max Dickens, Anthony Delasanta, Adam Franklin and Jaleel Felton finished with a time of 3:18.52. Freshman Nicholas Fitch finished fifth in the 800-meter run finals, clocking in with a time of 1:54.07.
The next men’s track and field meet will be the URI Coaches Tribute on Friday, Feb. 9. The women’s team also competes on the Feb. 9, in the URI Coaches Invitational.