Men’s Track and Field win first New England crown since 2016
In a landslide, the Rams win their first New England championship since 2016. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
Rhode Island Men’s Track and Field Coach Trent Baltzell was able to add the first piece of silverware of the year to URI’s trophy case last weekend.
Last weekend, his team swept the competition at the New England Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston, crowning nine individual champions and two relay team champions on their way to the team’s first title at the New England Championships since 2016.
The Rams scored an impressive 231.5 points, well clear of second place American International College (AIC), who earned 92 points.
“It feels amazing,” Baltzell said. “I think we knew going into this meet that, you know, we were probably the strongest team. We could have won this meet without having a spectacular meet, but every single guy on our team really rose to the occasion.”
Junior distance runner Ben Fleischer played a large role in the team’s win, achieving the program’s third-best time of 14:26.48 in the 5000 meters. After struggling for the majority of the season, Fleischer’s first New England Championship certainly served as a point of motivation for him and the team.
“It was definitely a surreal moment for me because prior to this meet, I had been struggling a little bit with running fast,” Fleischer said. “I think it was a very big moment for me and it got the team rolling and we kinda just never looked back after that.”
Fleischer was the first of four athletes crowned champions on Friday. Senior Garrett Robinson won his first New England Championship in the long jump with an impressive 7.26 meter jump. Freshman Mason Brubaker won the pole vault, successfully clearing 4.70 meters, and senior Jide Akinjisola added his name to the list of first-time winners with a 19.08 meter mark in the weight throw.
“Jide Akinjisola opened with a one-foot PR and just put the pressure on the field and no one was really able to catch him after that,” Baltzell said. “So it was awesome to see Jide kind of show up and take a win there.”
Kellen Waters also put in a strong performance, placing first in the 1000 meter with a time of 2:24.38, a new school record.
Continuing the dominant team performance, Waters was one of five URI champions crowned on Saturday. Junior Jolon O’Connor placed first in the 60 meters at 6.84 seconds, and sophomore Lucas Plaia topped the 500 meter final with a time of 1:04.54. Junior Devin Donahue added to the list with a heptathlon win, and fifth-year student Derek Jacobs topped off the list of Ram individual champions in the shot put with a distance of 16.38 meters.
URI also saw two relay teams take the crown. Jarrett Young, Liam Creeley, Lucas Plaia, and Collin Ochs led the 4×400 relay team to victory with a time of 3:18.28. Aidan Kindopp, Owen Fleischer, Ianique Imboque, and Eli Baker won the 4×800 relay with a time of 7:48.46.
What made Baltzell’s first New England Championships in his first season extra special was that his predecessor, John Copeland, was there to watch it all happen.
“I’m just proud of the guys for doing what they did and just believing in the new coaching staff and, and actually Coach Copeland was at the meet, so he was able to witness the fruits of his labor for the last 39 years, just kinda keeping things moving in the right direction,” he said.
The Rams travel back to Boston on Saturday to compete in the BU Valentine Invitational, where they will look to continue their success as they prepare for the Atlantic 10 Championships in Virginia at the end of the month. Fleischer feels that the Rams are ready for the challenge.
“It’s gonna be a very tough competition, but we think we have the team and all the pieces to compete and definitely try and become champions once again in the Atlantic 10 for indoor track and field.”