The University of Rhode Island men’s indoor track and field team utilized the Brown Invitational this weekend as a tune-up for an opportunity to make history at the Atlantic 10 Championship.
It was a smaller group of Rams competing in Providence on Saturday, primarily field athletes. This small group scored 70 points, enough to place Rhode Island fourth of the 10 schools that competed. Two Rams won their events, scoring 10 points each; a third Ram, first-year Owen Vieira, won in the 60-meter hurdle. However, since Vieria ran unattached, it didn’t result in any points for Rhode Island.
Those high-scoring Rams, first-year Cam Miller and second-year Mason Pilkington, not only notched their first career wins but set new personal records as well. Pilkington ran the 60-meter dash in 6.98 seconds, his first sub-seven-second 60-meter of his collegiate career. Miller, a Rhode Island native, cleared 6-6 3/4 in the high jump, over three inches better than second place and over an inch better than Miller’s previous personal record. Miller’s performance in the high jump also earned him A-10 Rookie of the Week honors.
With this meet now in the books, Rhode Island is taking what it’s learned and shifting its focus toward the A-10 Championship.
“What I learned was kind of what I was expecting; we’re on a pretty severe upswing right now,” Rhode Island Head Coach Trent Balztell said. “We are absolutely on track to enter A-10s on a tear and I feel very, very confident. This weekend only raised my confidence.”
Rhode Island reaching its peak in the weeks leading up to the A-10 Championship is a part of its expectations, according to Baltzell. Since Baltzell’s hiring back in July 2021, he has won A-10 Indoor Coach of the Year twice and has led the Rams to four consecutive indoor championships. Only Virginia Tech has won that many in a row from 1997 to 2000; if Rhode Island is able to win a fifth-straight title, they become the first school to do so in the history of the A-10.
So, how does Rhode Island prepare for such a historic opportunity?
“A lot of recovery, hay is in the barn, any training that we do is probably only going to hurt,” Baltzell said. “It’s about sharpening the axe, which means sprinters are going to do only a couple reps here and a couple there. For the most part, it’s going to be about recovery, prehab, rehab [and] mobility work.”
Following its recovery, Rhode Island will make the trip down to the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach for the A-10 Championship, where strong competition is expected in each event.
“One thing I can say unequivocally is that we’re going to go into this meet, and in every single event, regardless of who the competitors are against us, we will have competition across the board,” Baltzell said. “Every single event there will be at least somebody from some team that is going to allow us to push ourselves to that next level.”
In terms of teams in the A-10 that could challenge the Rams, one stands above the rest. In three of the past four championships, George Mason University has been the runner-up to Rhode Island. In the lone season GMU wasn’t the runner-up, it finished third by a margin of three points.
“There are a few events, if we’re discussing this battle between us and George Mason, that could have some major points swings,” Baltzell said. “High jump is one of those events, the 60-meter dash [is another]. If we can win those smaller battles, if we can consistently win those battles, then we’ll probably run away with the meet… If we go in there and if we have a good meet, I think we’re going to have a lot of guys at the podium, a lot of winners.”
The most competitive event between these two schools is the pole vault. Entering the A-10 Championship, Rhode Island and George Mason own all top-seven seeds in the A-10, and in the past three championships, they were the only schools with representatives at the podium.
The A-10 began sponsoring indoor track and field back in 1993. Since then, no other school has come close to the success that Rhode Island has had. This Friday and Saturday mark not just a chance to build upon this sustained success, but to build a dynasty the likes of which have never been seen in the Atlantic 10.
