The Massachusetts women’s track and field team put on another excellent showing this weekend, scoring 168.5 points to come in second place at the Holy Cross Invitational.
In throwing events, the Minutewomen racked up 64 points, including 12 top-eight finishes. The shot put was dominated by UMass, with senior Nalis Mbianda winning the event with a toss of 45 feet, 4.25 inches. She was followed by freshman Kelsey Crawford, and seniors Rachelle Bourque and Kaylee DeVincent. DeVincent also placed in two other events, coming in third place in the discus throw and seventh in the hammer throw.
Bourque wasn’t done after the shot put, as she finished first in the javelin throw with a throw of 129 feet, 2 inches.
The long jump also saw four Minutewomen place, with senior Katherine Finnegan taking second place and sophomore Ashley Palmer in third. Sophomores Courtney Kromko and Becky Stoyle took fifth and sixth place.
On the track, UMass placed 16 in the top eight of the 11 events. Three Minutewomen placed in the 800-meter, with juniors Sarah Bittermann and Meghan Leahy coming in third and fourth place, respectively, and sophomore Katie Powers finished eighth.
Men finish 3rd at Invitational
The UMass men’s track and field team came in third place out of eight teams at the Holy Cross Invitational on Saturday.
After witnessing freshman Nick Ingham win the decathlon earlier in the week, the Minutemen scored 99 points, with a majority of those won in track events. Junior Quinn Ryder and Sophomore Patrick Farnham placed twice for UMass, finishing in third and fourth place in the 100- meter dash, as well as fifth and sixth in the 200-meter dash, respectively.
The Minutemen earned 20 top-eight finishes overall. Junior Zachary Hildenbrandt was the sole competitor from UMass to win an event, taking the top spot in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.22 seconds. Senior Paul Grafov came in just .02 seconds after Hildebrandt for second place.
Freshman Zack Grube also placed twice for the Minutemen, finishing third in the 400-meter hurdles and sixth in 110-meter hurdles. Junior Stephen Bigelow finished in fourth for the Minutemen. In the relay portion of the Invitational, UMass placed fourth in the 4×100-meter relay, while coming in fifth in the 4×400-meter event.
For the second straight meet, freshman Michael Cyphers and sophomore Gregory Copeland gave the Minutemen a boost in the field events, finishing in second and third place in the pole vault, respectively. Other top eight finishers for UMass in the field events include senior Andrew Grube (high jump), sophomore Brendan Cavallaro (shotput), and freshman Mathias Burner (discus, hammer).
The men’s and women’s teams will celebrate Senior Day before final home event of the season this weekend at the UMass Pre-Conference Meet.
Jason Kates can be reached at [email protected].
