The University of Rhode Island men’s track and field team competed at both the Boston University Valentine Invitational and the URI Coaches Invitational this past weekend.
The hosting Rams honored their seniors before their last meet at Mackal Field House on Saturday afternoon. This was the Rams’ second-to-last weekend of regular season competition before the Atlantic 10 Championship on Feb. 23.
Rhody earned first place in all of their field events at the Coaches Invitational. Fourth-years Alexander Baez and Chris Tavarone took the top spots in weight throw and shot put respectively. Baez had a mark of 65′ 5″ and Tavarone threw for 17.14 meters.
Third-year Israel Henriques Setho won the long jump with a leap of 7.27 meters, followed by three Rams – first-year Nate Shultz, fifth-year Davon Tate and fourth-year Isaiah Webster – in the second, third and fourth spots.
Rhody claimed two of the top three spots in the high jump, led by first place third-year Ryan Tona, clearing 6′ 8.75″. Fourth-year Matt Santy cleared 6; 6.75 ”, earning third place.
To finish off the field events, third-year Jason Brubaker’s mark of 16′ 4.75 won him the pole vault while graduate student Orion Joyner took the triple jump (47′ 10.5″).
Moving on to the track events, fourth-year Kai Schmidt-Bilowith earned first place in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.21 seconds.
The BU Track and Tennis Center saw highlights come from third-year Jarett Young and fifth-year Jolon O’Connor in the 200 meter dash, finishing fifth and 13th respectively.
The success across Rhody’s statistics last weekend meant something more to the fourth-years who were honored at Mackal.
“It was kind of surreal,” Taravone said. “In my freshman year, seeing all the seniors line up, I thought ‘it’ll take a while for me to get there.’ And then, it almost felt like I blinked, closing my eyes for half a second. Now, I’m at the end of four years already. It’s pretty crazy.”
Head coach Trent Baltzell expanded on how fast a collegiate career can go by.
“It is bittersweet,” Baltzell said. “Their careers started in the middle of COVID and now they’ve turned into the heart and soul of our team.”
With the Atlantic 10 Championship on the horizon, Tavarone says his team will build confidence on the success from this past weekend.
“Seeing how things played out and hitting the group this past weekend was awesome for confidence,” Tavarone said. “Just to prove it to ourselves and to everyone else in the conference that we still got it. We’re still at the top.”
The Rams are coming off of three straight A-10 Indoor Championship wins.
“I think we’re in a pretty good position to defend our title,” Baltzell said. “As a team, it feels like we’re going from simmer to boil. After this weekend, I walked out of the meets feeling great.”
Tavarone expanded on how the team’s dedication in practice has gotten them to a solid standpoint.
“We’re very focused and determined on getting our job done in our individual events, making sure we’re there right now for all of our teammates,” Tavarone said. “We’re giving all the energy that we have to each other and making sure everyone gets their job done. They’ve had weeks of practice and we’ll be sure to implement that when we go down to Virginia.”
Next up, the Rams head to Providence, Rhode Island for the Brown Invitational on Saturday.