The Massachusetts men’s and women’s track and field teams took to Boston University this weekend for the John Thomas Terrier Classic. The meet, which is unscored, offers a chance for competitors to qualify for postseason meets which begin this Friday at the New England Championship.
On Friday, the Minutewomen qualified 10 athletes for New England, including three who also qualified for the ECAC standards meet in March. Sophomore Jada Harris’ mark of 5 feet, 8.75 inches in the high jump qualified for both meets, as did freshman Bryanna River’s 800-meter time of 2:12.
Senior Colleen Sands was the third runner of the day to qualify for both New England and ECAC, with a time of 9:51 in the 3,000 meter. The distance team also qualified Olivia Weir in the 1,000 meter (2:58) and Caroline Clark in the mile (5:04) for New England.
Junior Charlotte Robison earned qualifying marks for New England in two events, hitting 18 feet, 0.25 inch in the long jump and 9.2 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
Also qualifying for New England was Kayla Rorke who hit a mark of 11 feet, 6.25 inches in the pole vault, along with Diamante Spencer and Lindsay Witt with times of 25.27 and 25.33, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.
The meet continued Saturday, where the Minutemen qualified three athletes for New England and two for the IC4A standards in March. Junior Jake DeGrace led the way, running a personal best of 8.07 in the 60-meter hurdles and earning a qualifying spot at both meets. Brian Gendron also qualified for both meets while setting a personal best of 4:09 in the mile.
The final qualifier of the day was senior John Chuma whose pole vault of 15 feet, 3 inches met the New England standard.
Finishing up the meet, the UMass 4×400 meter relay team of DeGrace, Hayden Gray, Jacob Gore and Kevin Shannon ran to a season best in 3:23.80.
The Minutemen and Minutewomen will both begin postseason competition this Friday at the two-day New England Championships. The meet will be held at the Reggie Lewis Center and will begin at 10 a.m.
Will Katcher can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @will_katcher.
