The Massachusetts men’s track and field team looks to rebound from a disappointing showing at last week’s Atlantic 10 Championships with another strong home performance at this weekend’s New England Championships.

The Minutemen are coming off a 10th place finish at the A-10 Championships, the worst finish at the competition in school history. However, the top performance of the event for UMass came from sophomore Daniel Schwartz, who finished third in the decathlon.

‘Everyone suffers a letdown or a sub-par performance at some point,’ UMass coach Ken O’Brien said. ‘ ‘Good competitors respond to a letdown in the next one, and that’s what I expect from us.’

Twenty-three individual athletes and three relay teams have qualified for the second meet of the championship season. UMass is in strong position to continue its dominance of the distance events, with six qualifiers in the 5,000 meter run and the 10,000 meters, respectively.

Junior Andrew Mulvaney and sophomores David and Kevin Johnson qualified for both events for the Minutemen.

Junior Nicolai Naranjo will look to repeat his strong performance at last year’s meet, where he finished first in the 5,000 meter with a time of 14 minutes, 22.57 seconds. Junior Jonathan Pierce also scored in the 5,000 meter for UMass last season with a sixth place finish.

The Minutemen also look for strong performances in the 800 meter run and the decathlon. Junior Ryan DiOrio has had a consistent season, notching two second-place finishes while never finishing outside the Top 10 in the 800 meters. Sophomore Scott VanderMolen has been very productive at home this season, finishing third at the UMass Pre-Conference Meet and sixth at the UMass Six-Way Meet.

Schwartz, sophomore Chris Dzidek and freshman Daniel Wu will compete in the decathlon for the Minutemen. Schwartz was one of the few bright spots for the UMass last week, taking third place with 5,883 points, while Dzidek took seventh place with 5,426 points. At the Holy Cross Decathlon, Schwartz ranked sixth, with Dzidek rounding out the Top 10.

On the women’s side, 17 individual athletes will also compete at the New England Championships this week. Junior Lisa Wilson and redshirt senior Kristen Bakanowski look to lead the Minutewomen once again. Wilson will compete in the shot put, discus toss and the hammer throw. Last week she was named the UMass/Dinn Brothers Athlete of the Week after finishing first in the discus, second in the shot put and sixth in the hammer at the A-10 Championships.

Bakanowski also deserves consideration for the Minutewomen’s best field athlete. She looks for her sixth top-two finish in the pole vault after winning the event in the first two meets of the season and has racked up three consecutive second-place finishes since.

Sophomores Ida Okkonen and Stephanie Aguguo could also have an impact on the field event rankings, with both competing in the triple jump, and Okkonen competing in the long jump. Freshman Karen Roa also looks to make an impact this weekend, qualifying for the 3,000 meter steeplechase and the 5,000 meter run.

The meet will be held at the UMass Track & Field Complex and begins Friday at 10 a.m., with the 100 meter dash portion of the men’s decathlon and concludes with the 5000 meter run sections. Saturday’s events begin at 10 a.m., with the long jump portion of the women’s heptathlon and conclude with the men’s 4×400 meter relay sections at 4:45 p.m.

Mike Mastone can be reached at [email protected].