University of Massachusets Athletics
Bakanowski Wins Pole Vault At New England Championships
May 13, 2006 | Women's Track & Field
May 13, 2006
Cambridge, Mass. - The UMass men's track team finished twenty-fourth while the women's team finished nineteenth at the New England Championships hosted by MIT. The top performance of the day came from sophomore Kristen Bakanowski (Northboro, Mass.) who placed first won the pole vault on Friday with a jump of 12 feet.
The jump ties a career-best height for Bakanowski who has cleared 12-feet on a handfull of occassions. As a freshman, she tied the indoor school record twice with that mark. During her outdoor campaigns, she has also cleared it twice which is the second-best height in school history. This is the first time this outdoor season that she has reached the 12 feet barrier after battling through a nagging ankle injury all year long.
The sophomore has shown her championship form over the last two weeks after picking up her third Atlantic 10 Championship title in the pole vault. She has won back-to-back indoor titles since stepping foot on campus in Amherst and earned her first title of her outdoor career clearing 11-feet, 5.75 inches last weekend at Charlotte. Along with her A-10 hardware, Bakanowski won the pole vault title at the 2005 New England Indoor Championships meet. Friday's win was her first during outdoor title at the New England Championships.
For the men's team, notable performances came from sophomore Nathan Barksdale (Valparaiso, Indiana) who placed eleventh in the 400-meter dash in 50.58 seconds. Freshman Kevin Ianetta (Tewksbury, Mass.) placed thirteenth in the 400-meter hurdles with an outdoor best of 55.82 seconds.
Sophomore Nils Fischer (Stow, Mass.) took second in the 5000-meter run to finish in 14:41.99. Senior Ryan Corbett (East Longmeadow, Mass.) was right behind him in 15:03.62 to place seventh. Both finishes for Corbett and Fischer were outdoor seasonal bests.
In the triple jump competition, junior Erik Hoagland (Belchertown, Mass.) placed ninth with a jump of 45 feet, 3 ½ inches. In the long jump competition, Hoagland took second with a distance of 23 feet, 5 ½ inches. Freshman Steve Gerome (Waltham, Mass.) took thirteenth in the long jump with a jump of 21 feet, 3 ½ inches.
In the 4x400 meter relay, the men's team of Nathan Barksdale, Manny Harris-Lopes, freshman David Lopes (Brockton, Mass.), and Steve Gerome took fifth place finishing in 3:21.80. For the 4x800 meter relay, the team of sophomore Kevin Murphy (Bridgewater, Mass.), sophomore Ryan Durkin (Andover, Mass.), Ryan Corbett, and junior Zac Pryzsiecki (Princeton, N.J.) took fourth place in 7:58.80.
For the women's team, sophomore Christina DeRosa (Sound Beach, N.Y.) took sixth place in the 5000-meter run to finish in 17:19.51. DeRosa's finish beats her previous school record of 17:31.63 that she set at the Brown Invitational earlier this season. Senior Ashley Creel (Sandwich, Mass.) took fourth place in the women's heptathlon with 2,460 points, while sophomore Jen Rippel (North Reading, Mass.) placed twentieth in the 400-meter run to finish in 1:01.18.
In two weeks, the men's and women's track teams will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to take part in the NCAA Regional Qualifier.