Huskies earn 13 top 10 finishes at Terrier Invite

The UConn men’s track and field team put forth another impressive performance at Boston University’s Terrier Invite on Saturday as they compiled 13 top 10 finishes. Head Coach Gregory S. Roy credited the team’s performance to the “aggressive,” “tough” and “hard-nosed” approach the group takes when they compete.

“We went in with the goal of competing a certain way, with the idea that our performance, should we compete like that, would take care of itself,” Roy said. “It worked out really well.”
The story of the day for UConn was the contributions the team got from their freshmen. Of the Huskies 13 top 10 finishes, six were from first year athletes. In the 1,000 meter run, freshman Alvaro Chavez (West Windsor, NJ) finished with a time of 2:26.41 and fellow freshman Alex Levine (Danbury) followed closely behind in 2:26.82, placing them in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Freshmen Connor Grunwald (Neshanic Station, NJ) and Tim Murphy (New Fairfield) finished sixth and ninth in the pole vault with jumps of 4.70 meters for Grunwald and 4.60 meters for Murphy. This week’s Big East Field Athlete of the Week, Junior Cory Duggan (Staten Island, NY), also placed third in the pole vault, flinging himself to a personal best of 5.00 meters.

In the long jump, freshman John Landis (Philadelphia, Penn.) took home fourth with a jump 7.02 meters while freshman Harley Lacroix (Elkins Park, PA) leapt to a fifth place finish with a jump of 6.87 meters.

“We certainly thought that we had a good freshmen class coming in this year, and so far they have done nothing to prove that they’re anything different,” Roy said. “Moving forward, we can’t wait to see what we can do.”
Senior Alex Bennatan (Lake Forest, Ill) had the Huskies top finish of the day, completing the 800 meter run in a personal best time of 1:50.90, good for second place. Sophomore Amanze Williams (New Haven) impressed in the triple jump, placing third in the meet with a hop, skip and jump of 14.57 meters.

“I was real excited about Amanze Williams in the triple jump. He got third overall and it was probably the best competition he’s had since he’s been here,” Roy said.

Williams also finished in eleventh place in the long jump with a leap of 6.45 meters.

The Huskies, and their group of fantastic freshmen, will have another chance to show just how good they are when they return to competition on Saturday Feb. 2, at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge.