The University of Rhode Island men’s track and field team split up across two events over the weekend as the team prepares for the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championship on Saturday and Sunday.
The Rams sent five athletes to the highly-regarded Penn Relays from Thursday to Saturday to compete in the distance medley event as well as the high jump. The distance medley relay team consisted of second-year Maddox Jordan, second-year Elias Sposato, fourth-year Antonio Capalbo and third-year Nick Martin. The lone high jumper URI sent was sixth-year Matt Santy.
The distance medley team finished ninth out of 13 teams with a time of 9:44.14. Despite the placement, the time beat a 40-year school record by 10 seconds. The previous record of 9:54.30 was set on April 26, 1986.
“Going into the race, we knew that we were capable of smashing that record,” Martin said. “This is the best our team’s ever been. I won’t sugarcoat it, our distance program right now is historically better than it has ever been in the school’s history.”
It was a chaotic way to break the record, according to head coach Trent Baltzell. One of the runners fell at one point and dropped the baton, but was able to catch up and be in the lead for a portion of the race.
Santy finished in eighth place, clearing a height of 2.06 meters. Santy finished above athletes from well-known programs such as the United States Naval Academy, Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University.
Rhody sent 16 of its athletes to the team’s final regular-season meet, the CCSU Blue Devil Invite, on Friday.
Second-year Owen Vieira and third-year Cooper Mitchell took home first in the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles, respectively. Viera crossed the finish line in 14.90 seconds, and Mitchell finished in 54.32 seconds.
First-year Carson Dean, fourth-year Alex DeStefano and third-year Damian Scouloukas finished in a three-way tie for first place in the pole vault, all clearing a height of 4.30 meters. First-year Tyler Grabinski finished right behind his teammates in fourth, as he also cleared 4.30 meters, but took an extra attempt to clear 4.15 meters that his teammates didn’t need.
Third-year Theo Puterbaugh rounded out the Rhody winners, taking home first in the shot put with a throw of 16.68 meters. Second-year Winslow Sightler got fourth with his throw of 16.11 meters. Two other Rams finished in the top 10, as first-year Brandon Wolfenden’s throw of 14.59 meters and third-year CJ McDermott’s throw of 14.56 meters earned them sixth and seventh place, respectively.
“We had quite a few PRs over at CCSU, both on the track and in throwing events,” Baltzell said. “That group should be feeling a lot more confident now than they were.”
Sightler also earned second place in the discus with a 47.32-meter throw, 0.17 meters off from the lead. Third-year Sam Meleshenko finished in fifth with 46.56 meters.
Fourth-year Nate Field was another top-three finisher for URI, finishing in second place in the hammer with a throw of 55.24 meters. Wolfenden was right behind him with 55.13 meters and a fourth-place finish. Meleshenko rounded out the top five with a 52.76-meter throw.
Second-year Jacob Volkerts and first-year Ryan Temistokle both finished in fifth place in the 100-meter and 400-meter events, respectively. Volkerts finished in 11.12 seconds, and Temistokle crossed the finish line in 49.82 seconds.
The Rams now prepare to head to Fairfax, Va., for the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championship, where the team looks for revenge after losing last year’s meet to George Mason University by 1.5 points.
“It was heartbreaking last season,” Martin said. “There’s no worse feeling than losing by such a small margin. I think I would rather have gotten blown out than barely lost that meet. So, we’re coming back for vengeance, and we’re going to do something spectacular this weekend.”
URI had won the previous four titles before last year, and the last team to win the meet, not named URI or George Mason, was the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2012.
