The chase for a school record concluded on Friday night, when the Massachusetts track teams competed at the Reebok Indoor Games.
The Minutemen, led by senior Zachary Koncki, finished sixth overall with 45 points.
Koncki posted a mark at 24-00.25 in the long jump, good enough for first place in the event. He also broke Erik Hoagland’s five-year school record in the event. Coach Ken O’Brien praised the triumph but also wanted to ensure that he didn’t stop there.
“It was a nice thing to see,” said O’Brien. “There is no doubt in my mind that he would have broken [the record]. I think he was anxious to get the next meet under his belt and he broke it really early in the competition.
“It kind of took the pressure off, but also put it on, kind of like you finally did it but let’s not stop here. I’m always happy when that happens, though, to take some pressure off him,” said O’Brien.
Koncki also contributed with a third-place finish in the 55-meter hurdles. He qualified for the finals in 7.73 seconds, and then recorded a time of 7.75 seconds in the finals, to earn his third-place finish.
Aaron Araujo and Paul Grafov, the team’s 400-meter runners, also contributed to the points haul. Araujo placed third after registering a 49.86 second showing, and Grafov wasn’t far behind, coming through in 50.54 seconds, good for seventh.
“Aaron had done some good work over the summer, and training in the fall, and is one of the kids who qualified as a freshman for the junior nationals,” said O’Brien. “He’s obviously an outstanding runner and he is starting to come around feeling comfortable with college competition.”
In long distance, sophomore Thomas Mullen produced an impressive showing in a pair of events. Mullen started his evening with a 4:21.54 in the mile, and then added a 2:31.64 1000-meter performance, which was good enough for fifth-place.
Though the Minutemen dropped three places from their third-overall finish in 2011, O’Brien was still pleased.
“We graduated 15 seniors from last year’s team, most of which scored [last year],” said O’Brien. “Our kids went down there and did very, very well.
On the other side, the Minutewomen collected 72.33 points in their charge to fourth-place at the Joe Donahue Indoor Games.
While Koncki broke one record, Nalis Mbianda was busy chasing one of her own in the shot put. Mbianda, who placed first, threw for 44-09.50, two inches short of her own best, and four-and-a-quarter inches short of the school record.
UMass continued the trend of solid showings in the field events. Rachelle Bourque, and Kaylee DeVincent picked up third, and fourth place finishes, respectively. While Rebecca Stoyle placed fourth and Jaclyn Lam finished fifth in the triple jump.
“We had a number of solid performances from our upperclassmen,” said assistant coach David Jackson. “However, we also had a number of very good performances for our freshman.”
On the track, the Minutewomen were also able to obtain points. Sarah Bitterman won the 500-meter dash, producing a time of 1:17.58. Michelle Jenssen finished in fourth-place in the same event with a 1:19.69. Karen Roa raced to third in the 3000-meter race, coming through in 9:53.11.
Katie Powers also had a successful outing in the 1000-meter race, a pleasing site to Jackson.
“Powers had a good race in the 1000 [meter event],” said Jackson. “Coming off of cross-country it’s a different animal for our young ladies to come back to indoor and sharpen up to run fast early in the season.”
Jackson also believes that the Minutewomen are very poised for what lies ahead on their schedule.
“Overall everyone is performing at a level for late January, their third meet, starting to position themselves to prepare to go into conference championship, and hopefully put up a good fight position us well for the A-10.”
The Minutemen will now be competing in the Giegengack Invitational at Yale University this upcoming weekend while the Minutewomen head back to North Kingston for the Charles Torpey Tribute.
Jeffery Okerman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Okerman.
