The University of Rhode Island men’s track and field team scored 178.5 points en route to its fifth-straight Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championship.
Rhode Island started strong, scoring 18 points in the long jump, after being projected 11 based on seeding. Fourth-years Matt Santy and John Santos claimed first and second place; it was Santy’s first A-10 title for the long jump, leaping 7.19 meters. For Santos, his jump of 7.14 was a new personal record. These performances gave the team an immediate confidence that this meet was theirs for the taking.
“I felt after the long jump got off to such a spectacular start for us, it was pretty much over,” URI Head Coach Trent Baltzell said. “There was just not really any way that [the other teams] were going to be able to score enough points by the end of the meet to beat us.”
At the end of day one, the Rams held a three-point lead over second-place George Mason University, but with the Rams’ strongest events still on the schedule, it was clear why Rhode Island was so confident. Over the next 14 events, the Rams went on a 114-29 run, finishing 57 points ahead of second place, a gap larger than the one between second-place GMU and sixth-place Saint Joseph’s University.
“Day two we just had a lot of really big point-scoring events; we knew we had a big group in the finals of high jump, the shot put, the 60-meter, heptathlon points coming through, the 800 [meter],” Baltzell said. “Once those events started happening, it just turned into a madhouse, and the guys kept feeding off all the positive energy.”
The high jump and the shot put were the Rams’ most successful events, scoring a combined 45.5 points. In the high jump, Santy defended his title as he cleared 2.07 meters, which earned him Most Outstanding Field Performer.
“[Santy] had this award on his mind now for a couple years,” Baltzell said. “He went into this meet as the favorite in [long jump and high jump]… it’s no small feat regardless of whether he was the favorite for the award or not… It really is truly a special thing for him to achieve what he achieved and be honored with that award.”
Santy wasn’t the only award winner for the Rams; Baltzell won his third consecutive A-10 Coach of the Year.
“It’s a testament to our staff,” Baltzell said. “All the hours and hours and hours spent on coaching athletes and getting the logistics right and developing a team… It’s a testament to the coaches and their willingness to go above and beyond… I’d like to congratulate my staff, and hopefully we can get that award changed to coaching staff of the year in 2026.”
Rhode Island did more than just win; they rewrote the record books, too. Fourth-year Jarrett Young set a new A-10 Championship record with a time of 47.33 seconds in the 400-meter.
The Rams also got 71.5 points from their underclassmen; not only did they get the experience of competing in high-leverage situations, but they proved they could deliver. Most notably, second-year Alex ‘The Bulldog’ Arbogast picked up 12 points between the 60-meter and the 200-meter.
“To have that initial success, it really puts them into that target area like Jarrett and Santy and some of those older guys have right now,” Baltzell said. “When Cam Miller jumped 2.04 [meters], it was his second [personal record] of the day, and we were going wild for that, and when [Jordan] Maddox won the 800, he was basically joined at the line by [Antonio] Capalbo… I’d say that was the shining moment of the meet for URI men’s track… they really brought the house down.”
Baltzell described his team’s energy as so intense and so loud that it felt as though the massive Virginia Beach Sports Center had shrunk around them.
In total, the Rams won five events and reached the podium 17 times. It wasn’t just the Rams fifth indoor title in a row, but also the ninth consecutive A-10 title when you include their outdoor dynasty as well.
The team returns to action this Friday and Saturday for the New England Championship in Boston, a meet the Rams have won three times in a row.
