The University of Rhode Island men’s track and field team honored 11 seniors on Saturday before dominating the competition at its final meet at Mackal Field House this season.
The Rams won five of the 17 events, including a sweep of the 500-meter, and had a total of 10 athletes reach the podium. It was a successful day that honored one of Rhode Island’s most storied classes in the history of the program.
“This was the first class of guys that I had been a part of recruiting,” Rhode Island Head Coach Trent Baltzell said. “There is a lot of memories with this group; they’ve all just contributed at one time or another to each of our championship wins, and when I think back to their PRs [personal records] I remember them vividly because I’m pretty much there every step of the way. We’re going to miss this group when they’re gone.”
One of the guys that contributed to all those championships is fourth-year Jarrett Young. In his final indoor meet in Mackal Field House, Young led a group of Rams that not only swept the 500-meter, but also had six athletes finish in the top 10. Young finished with a time of 1:04.64, third-year CJ Kiviat placed second with a time of 1:05.34 and rounding out the podium was first-year Camden Rose with a time of 1:05.64. For Rose, it was a personal best and placed him eighth in the Atlantic 10 Conference seeding for the 500-meter.
These types of performances in the 500 are strong indicators that these athletes are well built for similar events, giving the Rams coaching staff more flexibility when creating their A-10 Championship roster, according to Baltzell.
“It’s really important to have a lot of guys that are running well in those long sprints, middle distance events,” Baltzell said. “The plan won’t be to have all those guys run the 500-meter at the conference meet, some of them it was more of a set up for a different race.”
By putting seven athletes into the 500-meter, Baltzell and his staff are able to prepare them for different events.
“If you’re more of a 200-400 [meter] guy, you run the 500 every so often to build up some strength and resilience, and if you’re an 800 [meter] guy you have to run the 500 to build up speed and aggressiveness,” Baltzell said. “I think those guys raced really well and hopefully gained some confidence that whatever race they will be running at A-10s, they’ll have set up a little bit better as a result of running the 500.”
Outside of the 500-meter, the Rams were just as successful, winning five other events. Fourth-year Matt Santy won the high jump after he cleared 2.03 meters; Santy also placed second in the long jump with a leap of 7.16 meters. Santy currently holds the one seed in the A-10 for the high jump and the long jump.
Other event winners for the Rams included second-year Theo Puterbaugh, who won the shot put with a toss of 16.18 meters. Fourth-year Mason Brubaker won the pole vault after he cleared 4.8 meters. Then in the 60-meter sprint, it was second-year Alex Arbogast who stood atop the podium with a time of 6.84 seconds.
The day prior to the URI Coaches Invitational, Rhode Island sent five athletes to the Harvard Crimson Elite meet. There the Rams had the opportunity to face strong competition in throwing events, according to Baltzell.
“The idea of bringing those guys to Harvard on Friday was to put them up against different competition and maybe higher level competition than what they’re seeing from a week-to-week basis,” Baltzell said. “All those guys came back and competed again the next day and were certainly a little fatigued… the competition on back-to-back days, which will be happening for the whole team come A-10s, that’s an important aspect of the sport.”
With the Indoor Atlantic 10 Championship rapidly approaching, simulating similar conditions is beneficial to the athletes, according to Baltzell.
Rhode Island returns to action on Friday and Saturday for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational and the Yale Giegengack Invitational.
