UMass women's track and field alumna Jen (Waeger) St. Jean '96 has been in action the World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships in Lyon, France, this week, running in the Women's 40 section of the 1500m run.
In Wednesday's preliminaries, St. Jean blew away the field, running the event in 4 minutes, 41.43 seconds, nearly 10 seconds faster than the next closest runner.
Then in today's final, St. Jean claimed Silver in the event with a time of 4 minutes, 37.08 seconds, just shy of Great Britain's Louise Rudd's winning time of 4:36.70.
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a recap of UMass Track & Field's Pre-Conference meet this past weekend, which saw the Minutewomen take first and the Minutemen place third.
Read: UMass women's track and field takes first place at Pre-Conference meet
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a preview of UMass track & field's Pre-Conference Meet at the UMass Track & Field Complex this weekend. Prior to the start of the meet, there will be a Senior Day ceremony and a dedication of the brand new scoreboard.
Read: With Atlantic 10s looming, UMass hosts its Pre-Conference meet
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a recap of UMass track and field's action from over the weekend at the Holy Cross Invitational, where the Minutemen earned a third place finish out of seven teams and the Minutewomen placed second out of seven.
Read: UMass track and field sees strong showing at Holy Cross Invitational
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a recap of the men's and women's track and field teams' home meet last Saturday, the Minuteman Invitational. The day's action saw the men take second of nine and the women place third among nine squads.
Read: UMass men's track and field finishes second, women finish third at Minuteman Invitational
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza recaps the UMass track and field action from this past weekend as the Minutewomen hosted Boston College and Rhode Island, while the Minutemen traveled to both Princeton and AIC.
READ: UMass track and field gains confidence amid improved outdoor conditions
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza takes a closer look at the three meets that the track and field programs will have athletes competing in this weekend as the Minutewomen expect to have back several athletes who are coming off injuries. On the men's side, several distance runners will be in action in Princeton, N.J., on Friday night, while others will run in the Yellow Jacket Invitational on Saturday at AIC.
Read: UMass women's track and field opens at home while Minutemen hit the road to start the season
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a preview of track and field's meets this weekend as both squads will open the outdoor portions of their schedules this Friday. The Minutewomen are slated to host Boston College and Rhode Island, while the Minutemen will send competitors both to Princeton and to AIC this Friday and Saturday.
Read: Outdoor season generates excitement for men's, women's track and field
UMass women's track and field senior Courtney Kromko received a nod in her hometown paper today following her performance at the Atlantic 10 Championship where she was named Most Outstanding Field Performer over the weekend.
Read: LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Kromko shines for UMass at A-10 Championships
In the Daily Collegian today, Nick Souza has a recap from the Atlantic 10 Track and Field Championships that took place this past weekend in Kingston, R.I., where the Minutewomen finished fourth and the Minutemen took sixth.
Read: UMass women place fourth at Atlantic 10s, men finish in the middle of the pack
In today's special spring sports issue of the Daily Collegian, Adam Aucoin has a feature on standout women's track and field sophomore Heather MacLean.
Read: Inspired by a family connection, Heather MacLean continues to thrive on the track
In the Boston Globe Magazine this week, Shira Springer has a "First Person" account from UMass women's track and field alum Lisa Wilson and her upcoming participation in the U.S. Indoor Track & Field Championships in Boston at the end of February.
Read: Weight thrower Lisa Wilson looks forward to hometown support
In today's Daily Collegian, Nick Souza has a recap of women's track and field sophomore Heather MacLean's trip to the Tyson Invitational and her pursuit to make the cut for the NCAA meet.
Heather MacLean finishes fifth at Tyson Invitational
UMass women's track and field sophomore Heather MacLean received some attention for her outstanding start to the indoor track and field season in the Salem News last week. MacLean has set both program records in the 1000m and the 800m thus far this season.
Read: Peabody native MacLean sets more records at UMass
In today's Daily Collegian, Adam Aucoin has a recap of women's track and field's trip to the Joe Donahue Indoor Games last weekend, which were highlighted by standout performances from Rachel Hilliard and Heather MacLean.
Read: Rachel Hilliard, Heather MacLean highlight solid performance from UMass women's track and field
Marc Jean-Louis of the Daily Collegian has a recap of the men's cross country team's performance at the New England Championship meet last week in Boston at Franklin Park.
Following her sixth-place finish in the 800 meter run at USATF Junior Nationals, rising sophomore Heather MacLean spoke with Jean DePlacido of the Salem News for this piece:
Read: Trio of local track standouts earn Junior All-America status at Track Nationals
We hope you enjoyed our coaches sharing some of their favorite motivational quotes this week as part of #UMassCoachQuotes. We'll have another round of those coming next week as well. For now, let's look back at what our coaches submitted this past week.
Good luck to former UMass women's track & field standout thrower Lisa Wilson as she competes at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships today. Her event, the hammer throw, begins at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT
A live video stream is available here and live results here.
"Like his father, Stephen Bigelow was a late bloomer athletically.
Bob Bigelow (Winchester High, class of '71) played four years in the National Basketball Association after being drafted 13th overall out of the University of Pennsylvania in 1975.
His youngest son capped his hurdling career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst by being named the school's 2014 male spring scholar-athlete.
It was a startling turnaround from four years earlier.
"Stephen tried out for the team as a walk-on his freshman year and was cut," said David Jackson , who is in his fifth year as an assistant track coach at UMass. "He was a pretty good all-around athlete . . . but in high school he ran track as a training process for soccer.
Jackson added: "But he came back the next year a lot more determined . . . over the three years he competed for us he grew significantly. He dropped almost a full second off his competing time. In a sprinting event of 110 meters to drop almost a full second off of your hurdle time is pretty significant."
Read more: Bigelow blooms as a hurdler at UMass
"Holbrook native Katie Powers is breaking records on the UMass 4x800m relay team, and helping the quartet to be best in New England. "Katie has been amazing at our track workouts and has been especially dedicated in the weight room and it shows, physically and mentally," UMass coach Julie LaFreniere said. "Katie has tremendous confidence because she knows she put the time and effort in all year, starting with cross-country in the fall."
The junior, who ran throughout her Cardinal Spellman High School career, has improved since she started running in college.
As a freshman, Powers clocked a 2:21 in the 800m. In two years, she has shaved eight seconds off that time in the individual races (2:13) and another three seconds running in the relay (2:10).
"Katie has worked the hardest this year - she is motivated to be an outstanding 800m runner in order have the best 4x800m relay team possible," LaFreniere said.
This past year's indoor track relay team, with Powers as third leg, beat UMass' 21-year-old school record by 11 seconds.
Powers also helped her team win the A-10 Championship 4x800m relay by lunging herself across the finish line to give the Minutemen the win by .01 seconds."
Read more: Holbrook native runs down collegiate competition for New England crown
John Connolly from the Boston Herald headlined his college sports notebook over the weekend with a recap of UMass track & field freshman Heather MacLean's dominance at the Atlantic 10 Championship meet last weekend.
Read: Heather MacLean smashes UMass 800 mark
Over the weekend, John Connolly featured some of UMass men's track and field's talent from the Commonwealth:
There is certainly a homegrown flavor to the UMass men's track and field team as it heads into this weekend's Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Amherst. That comes as no surprise, considering there are more than 40 Bay State products dotting the Minutemen roster.
Longtime coach Ken O'Brien, a Foxboro native, who arrived as a student in 1959 and became coach in 1968, likes it that way.
"I didn't count them but I know there's a lot of them,'' said O'Brien with a laugh. "We've had a couple of good recruiting years, but, you know, Massachusetts has always had good cross country and track and field and I think that it's exploded since the Reggie Lewis Track was built and we've been one of the benefactors. I'm a Massachusetts guy myself that came out here and got involved in coaching. But the Massachusetts high school kids have always had some grit to them and good skills and academics and they take a real interest in the state university.''
Read more: UMass touts local interest
A good read from the Boston Globe on former UMass track athlete Jonathan Korhonen who, in honor of his mother, ran the Boston Marathon for the first time last week:
Read: Mother inspires first Marathon run
Arthur Hayden of the Daily Collegian has a recap of the women's track and field team taking third place at the New England Championships over the weekend highlighted by several standout individual performances. The article also recaps the performance by the men's team.
Arthur Hayden of the Daily Collegian has a recap of the UMass track and field teams and their performances at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend.
Just weeks after earning All-Conference honors at the A-10 Championships, Antony Taylor was honored as the online winner for the 2012 FloTrack Stashies at Nashies Awards for his mustache.
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/249913-2012-NCAA-Division-I-Cross-Country-Championships/article/15670-2012-Stachies-at-Nashies-Awards
Here was the campaign video he made to win the award.
Take a look at the feature story on Rachel Hilliard's success in the classroom and in athletics written by Jackson Alexander of
The Dailey Collegian. The feature also includes an interview with the head coach of the women's cross country and track and field teams Julie LaFreniere.
Massachusetts women's track and field coach Julie LaFreniere received an e-mail in mid-March that perplexed her.
The e-mail, from the academic services within the athletic department, notified her that all women's sophomore track and field athletes could sign up for fall courses.
But on the list was freshman cross country and track and field athlete, Rachel Hilliard.
Read on
Checkout this recap of the UMass Invitational from the
Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Happy birthday to Brenden Cavallaro of men's track & field and Leif Sorenson of men's baseball!
Happy birthday wishes to Adam Phillips of UMass hockey and Michelle Jenssen of women's track and field!
Happy birthday to Nicole Pompei of UMass Track & Field!
Happy birthday to Sarah Barrett of women's cross country and track & field!
Happy belated birthday to Lindsey Pfau of women's track & field!
Happy birthday to Em Chiu of rowing and Danielle Allocco of women's cross country and track!
Happy birthday to Danielle McNiff of women's cross country & track!
Happy birthday to Sean Duncan of UMass track & cross country!
Happy birthday to Emily Cota of UMass Women's Soccer and Karen Roa of UMass Women's Cross Country/Track & Field!
Recent UMass graduates David and Kevin Johnson were both mentioned in Bill Wells' column on MassLive.com today:
JOHNSON MAKES ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Ludlow's Kevin Johnson, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts in May, was selected to the Capital One All-Academic second team for the second year in a row.
In the spring, Johnson ran the fifth-fastest time in the history of the UMass men's track program in the 10K.
Johnson graduated with a 4.0 GPA. During his career, he was selected to 11 academic-based teams, and was also named the UMass Male Fall Scholar-Athlete in 2009. He'll attend the Dartmouth College Medical School in Hanover, N.H., in September.
Kevin Johnson (17:34) finished two seconds ahead of his twin brother, David, at the Summerfest 3.5 Mile Cross Country Race in Holyoke Sunday.
Read the full column on
MassLive.com.
UMass Athletics wishes a happy birthday to Jeff Hill, (men's cross country/track), Brianna Concialdi (women's lacrosse), Greg Anderson (men's lacrosse) and Therese Smith (women's soccer).
Jeff and Brianna celebrated their birthdays on Sunday, while Greg and Therese are our Monday birthdays.
Happy Birthday to Football's Julian Talley, Women's Track & Field's Katherine Finnegan, and Women's Lacrosse's Sarah Mullen!
Lots of UMass birthdays from the weekend and today! Jasmine Watson of the women's basketball team celebrated on Saturday, while Erika Unger of the track team enjoyed her day yesterday.
On Monday, make sure to say happy birthday to Mike Lee of the football team, Ryan Hollenbaugh of the men's lacrosse team and Christine Cutry of the field hockey team.
Four UMass athletes will be in action over the next three days as the NCAA East Preliminary Round gets underway in Bloomington, Ind., on the campus of Indiana University.
Dan Barry will be the lone Minuteman in action today as he will run in the fourth heat of the 1500m, which begins at approximately 5 p.m. The top-five per heat will move on to the national quarterfinal on May 28, plus the next four fastest times.
Tomorrow night, Karen Roa and Sean Duncan will be running in the 3,000m Steeplechase. Roa is in the third women's heat with the event set to begin at 8:30 p.m. Duncan will run in the second heat of the men's steeple, which will begin around 9:10 p.m. Top-three per-heat will qualify for the national semifinal on June 8, along with the next three fastest.
Stephanie Aguguo will be competing in the triple jump, which begins at 1 p.m. on Friday. Top-12 in the field will advance to the national final on June 10. She is mentioned in
today's Worcester Telegram.
All the meet information can be found
on this page on iuhoosiers.com, including and live video streams of the running events:
Day 1,
Day 2,
Day 3 Matt Strong of The Daily Collegian has a recap of last weekend's track and field meet, and previews this weekend's UMass Invitational.
"The Minutemen will look to pick up where they left off last weekend, building on a first-place finish at the Yellow Jacket Invitational."
UMass Winter Scholar-Athlete Luncheon - Cerie Mosgrove, Sean Busch. Speeches by Female honoree Cerie Mosgrove (women's basketball), Associate Head Coach Steve Lanpher, Professor Glenn Wong and Track & Field Coach Ken O'Brien. Busch was unable to attend.
Senior Cerie Mosgrove of the women's basketball team and senior Sean Busch of the men's track & field squad have been named the 2011 UMass Winter Scholar-Athletes. The duo will be honored at the UMass Sports Luncheon today, Apr. 6, at Room 1009 of the Campus Center at 12:15 p.m. Also, the UMass Athletes of the Week will be recognized: Sara Plourde of the softball team, who was also named the National Player of the Week and Katie Ferris of the women's lacrosse squad, who tallied 12 points in two wins for No. 11 UMass.
The Daily Record has a feature story on UMass women's track and field alumn, Nastaran Whitson, who was recentely named the All Daily Records Girls Indoor Track Coach of the Year for her work with Morris Hills High School . During her time at UMass, Whitson competed in the heptathlon as a multi for the Minutewomen.
Whitson was promoted to head coach of the girls team this year and led the squad to the NJSIAA North 1 Group II state sectional title, the second straight for the Scarlet Knights.
On March 28, we wish Happy Birthday to junior jumper
Zachary Koncki of Northampton.
Big day for the UMass birthday brigade with five birthdays on Feb. 25. Let's celebrate with
On Feb. 23, we wish best birthday wishes to track & field/cross country runner
Claire Pettit and defensive back
Shane Viveiros
Checkout this notebook blurb about the men's track and field team from over the weekend. Dick Baker from The Springfield Republican highlights the career of Ken O'Brien, and the success of his squad through the 2011 season.
(note: scroll down to middle of the page)
Over the weekend the Minutemen crowned four A-10 Champions.
Happy Birthday to men's track runner
Joe Doyle on Feb. 18.
Checkout Scott Cournoyer's recap of the Giegengack Invitational. The Daily Collegian recaps the two-day event in which both the men and women had a series of strong performances.
"Overall, I was very pleased with the way our team performed, we had some more guys qualify for New England and IC4A events and that's important when thinking about going even further, said coach Ken O'Brien."
Checkout this article from
The Sun Chronicle about UMass thrower Kevin Spieler. The senior competitor already has qualified for the New England Championships in the weight throw.
"Former Attleboro High Bombardier Kevin Spieler, a senior with the UMass-Amherst track team, had himself quite a meet at the Reebok Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Center last weekend" writes Peter Gobis.
Best wishes for a great birthday on Feb. 1 to women's lacrosse junior
Ryan Gormanand senior distance runner
Patrick McAllister
Happy Birthday to UMass senior runner
Gina Perno of the track team on Jan. 26.
Check out Telegram.com's article on UMass track and field alum Kristin Bakanowski getting hired at Algonquin Regional High School as an assistant track and field coach.
"Danielson's departure gives former Algonquin and UMass star Kristen Bakanowski an opportunity to fulfill a dream by coaching at her alma mater.
A T&G Super Team pick in indoor and outdoor track, the 25-year-old Bakanowski set the Algonquin record in the pole vault (12 feet) and competed on the national stage more than once before continuing her storied career for the Minutewomen, where she set their school record at 12 feet, 11-3/4 inches."
Best birthday wishes to senior track runner
Sonny Gamble and sophomore hockey defenseman
Darren Rowe
Best wishes for a Happy Birthday on Jan. 17 to men's track thrower
David McKenna and football linebacker
Ryan Delaire
With the indoor track & field season opening up this weekend for the Minutemen and Minutewomen,
the Boston Herald has a nice preview of both UMass teams.
Like the United States Postal Service, the UMass indoor track and field team delivers on time, no matter what the weather is.
Wednesday's mammoth nor'easter hardly was a hurdle for the Minutemen as they prepared for this weekend's season-opening Sorlien Memorial Invitational in Kingston, R.I.
Continue reading UMass track set for run at glory
A quartet of UMass student-athlete birthdays on Dec. 14: graduate student swimmer
Shannon Archer, sophomore sprinter
Emma Riedel and freshman soccer defender
Annie Ward.
Happy Birthday to this trio, celebrating on Dec. 10: tennis freshman
Jessica Podlofsky, soccer senior
Chris Vaccaro and junior track jumper
Daniel Wu.
Happy Birthday - Dec. 7: Track's
Chris Dzidek
Happy Birthday on Dec. 3 to
Philip Weltman
Happy Birthday to junior lacrosse players
Seth Berggren and
Mike Fetterly along with junior trackster
Rhonda Kolaric all three turn 21 today.
Happy Birthday: Nov. 30 to men's track junior
Mark Hewitt.
Happy Birthday on Nov. 8 to rowing senior
Emily Boucher and track sophomore
Tessa Merrick
On Nov. 7, we wish Happy Birthday to junior baseball player
Alex Fischer, track sophomore
Andrew Grube and football freshman
Brandon Hill.
Four UMass student-athlete Birthdays on Nov. 2.
One of the most popular birthdays among student-athletes at UMass is Oct. 27. Six birthdays to celebrate including five members of the track and field squads, here's a rundown:
Barry Collins D. Johnson K. Johnson
Mastrorio Simao
Busy day for UMass Athlete Birthdays on Oct. 4 as men's track sprinter
Arjun Collins, women's soccer player
Jen Houtmann, football lineman
Travis Poston and rower Erin Stockman all celebrate!
Houtman Poston Stockman
Wishing a Happy Birthday to track and field's
Tyler Cotto, who celebrates Sept. 23.
Happy Birthday to track's
Sarah Kelley and soccer's
David Key on Sept. 21.
Best wishes for a Happy Birthday to track runner
Nicolai Naranjo on Sept. 7.
A big day of birthdays for UMass student-athletes on Aug. 29: Stephane Aguguo (track & field), Marc Concannon (hockey), Perry McIntyre (football), Chris Roswess (men's soccer)
Happy Birthday wishes to track runner
Rosalind Murphy, who celebrates her big day on Aug. 27.
Happy Birthday to trackster Andrew O'Donnell on Aug. 20.
Wishing Happy Birthday to track and field student-athlete
Nalis Mbianda on Aug. 14.
