University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
New England Championships
Cotto, New England Champ Leads Minutemen
February 27, 2010 | Men's Track & Field
Feb. 27, 2010
BOSTON, Mass. - The UMass men's track and field team finished a two day New England Championship event on Saturday in impressive fashion. Not only did the Minutemen capture a solid sixth place out of a field of 33, but also added five qualifiers for next weekend's IC4A meet. The team tallied a total of 33 points to beat out 28 other teams.
Leading the way for UMass on the final day of the New England meet was Tyler Cotto in the finals of the 55 meter hurdles. Not only did he improve upon his second best school time in the event from the preliminaries on Friday, he also smashed through his previous time on Saturday again by capturing first place and crossing the line at 7.41. The New England Champion beat out his previous best by 0.13, and missed qualifying for the NCAA Meet by 0.24.
Not failing to impress were the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relay teams as both qualified for the IC4A Championships. The 4x400 team was comprised of Samuel Laorenza, Nick Otis, Philip Weltman, and Brian Tino as the quad took tenth place overall with a time of 3:19.85. With a further distance to run the team of Josh Boone, Michael McDonough, Ryan DiOrio, and Scott VanderMolen finished with a time of 7:46.04, good enough for sixth place.
Running with confidence was the combo of Boone and VanderMolen in the mile run. Both qualified for the IC4A meet as they captured tenth and 11th place respectively with times of 4:13.89 and 4:13.94. The duo was separated by a mere 0:00.05.
In the 3,000 meter run, previously IC4A qualified Daniel Barry led the way as he captured third place with an improved qualifying time of 8:22.08. He previously qualified for the IC4A's back on Jan. 14 at the BU Quad Meet where he crossed the line at 8:27.15. Jonathan Pierce also qualified for the IC4A Championships in the 3,000 meter run as he fell four spots behind Barry with a time of 8:25.73. Pierce is now qualified in both the 3,000 meter as well as the mile run.
Other non-qualifying competitors that finished strong for the Minutemen were Daniel Schwartz in the heptathlon and Brian Miller in the high jump. Schwartz competed in the heptathlon for a second consecutive week, as he placed seventh totaling 4,371 points. For Miller, he was able to place tenth in the event with a distance of 6-06.25.
The Minutemen will head to the state's capital one more time to compete in one of the most important and the last meet of the indoor track season next Friday and Saturday. Both days kick off at 10 am.
