With the Atlantic 10 Championships looming around the corner, the Massachusetts men’s indoor track team made yet another trek down I-90 to Beantown last weekend for its final preparation before the conference championships.

The Maroon and White’s third trip to Boston on the campaign allowed them to participate in the Valentine Classic at Boston University against well-known foes such as Rhode Island, Brown, Holy Cross and the host Terriers. While the Minutemen did not capture first place in any events on the afternoon, familiar faces on the team were abound as several athletes continued to shine.

Freshman Jeff Jason continued to perform well in the shotput, finishing strongly yet again as he took third place with a toss of over 52 feet. Teammate Eric Uliano nabbed a sixth place finish with a throw of just over 50 feet. Head coach Ken O’Brien has been pleasantly surprised with Jason’s steady performance throughout the year.

‘Jeff certainly seems to be performing beyond our expectations, because as a freshman you don’t know how long he’ll take to make the adjustment [to college],’ O’Brien said.

In other action, senior Brendan Sullivan took fourth in the 5000 meter run, clocking in with an impressive time of 4:57. The only other top ten finish the Minutemen grabbed was Hugh Reid’s sixth place in the 500 meter dash with a time of just over 1:05.

With the Atlantic 10 meet coming up this Saturday in Kingston, R.I. on the campus of URI, O’Brien hopes to come away with another solid performance by his squad after last year’s second-place finish.

‘We’ve usually been fighting for third or fourth place, and we’ve been lucky to maintain that kind of level on a yearly basis,’ he commented.

So far, the team has had its ups and downs since the season began in December. O’Brien described this winter’s campaign as a ‘rollercoaster ride’ because of all the injuries the team has suffered and the many young and inexperienced athletes the Minutemen had.

‘The [beginning of] the season really faced me with concern, because I felt we didn’t have a lot of room for error,’ he said.

But O’Brien cited several athletes, especially upperclassmen Reid and Marc Sylvander as two of the steadiest performers. He believes that the mix of both veteran and young athletes will help the Maroon and White toward a successful afternoon on Saturday.

‘We’ve got some promise and a good bunch of veterans and underclassmen to really go somewhere this weekend,’ O’Brien said.

The Minutemen should expect to do just that if they continue to build on their quality outings so far.