The Massachusetts men’s and women’s track and field teams journeyed to the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts Friday and Saturday for the New England Championship meet.

Competition opened Friday with several UMass runners qualifying for spots in Saturday’s finals events. Minuteman junior Brian Gendron was the lone qualifier on the men’s side, running 1:52.68, a season best, to take first in the 800-meter preliminaries.

In the women’s 800 meters, UMass also found success in freshman Bryanna Rivers, whose fourth place finish in the preliminaries, with a time of 2:16.07, earned her a spot in the finals.

Rivers doubled back later in the day to take fourth and score in the distance medley relay (1200, 400, 800, and 1600 meters) with help from Olivia Weir, Lindsay Witt, and Colleen Sands. They ran to a time of 12:13.17.

In the men’s pole vault, senior John Chuma finished just outside scoring after clearing a height of 15’5” to place 11th. On the women’s side, fellow senior Kayla Rorke’s personal best of 11’11.75” earned her eighth place.

Also scoring for the Minutewomen on Friday were Jada Harris in the high jump (fifth, 5’7”) and Emma Jones in the pentathlon (eighth, 2,887 points).

Saturday’s continuation of the meet saw Gendron return to claim third in the 800 meters in a time of 1:52.7. He was the only individual athlete to score for the men, as Zabih Kotecha, Nicholas Santos, Adam Selsman and Russell Wells took fifth in the 4×800 meter relay, running 7:50.70.

The UMass men finished 16th out of 24 teams with 10 points.

For the Minutewomen, several athletes performed well enough on day two to lead them to a sixth place finish with 48.5 points. Freshman Ivana Nyemeck leapt to first in the triple jump (39 feet, 8.75 inches), while sophomore Ashley Arroyo also scored in that event, taking fifth (38 feet, 0.25 inches).

UMass placed three women in the shot put, fronted by freshman Danielle Notarfrancesco’s second place (47 feet, 5.75 inches) and followed by teammates Lauren LaDere (sixth, 42 feet, 11.75 inches) and Bridget Deveau (eighth, 42 feet, 0.5 inches).

On the track, the Minutewomen scored three athletes. Sophomore Jada Harris earned fourth in the 60 meter hurdles, running 8.74, freshman Bryanna Rivers took fifth in the 800 meters with 2:13.92, and senior Colleen Sands finished it up with a 10:03.55 sixth place in the 3,000 meters.

UMass will have until Friday to recover for their next meet. The Minutewomen will travel to Boston University for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, while half of the Minutemen will journey to the University of Rhode Island for the URI Coaches Tribute.

The remaining half of the men’s team will compete on the second day of the Valentine Invitational on Saturday.

Will Katcher can be reached at [email protected], and followed on Twitter @will_katcher.