the Informer

Photo courtesy of Hartford Sports Information

On Friday, the University of Hartford track and field team traveled to Northeastern University to compete in the 2010 Boston Indoor Games. Along with the top tier schools in New England represented at the Boston Indoor Games, teams from as far as South Florida came to participate. After practicing during the week at Weaver High School where the athletes are not even allowed use cleats, the Hartford athletes were able to give a 100 percent effort on what is considered one of the best indoor tracks in the country: the Reggie Lewis track.Competing against teams all across the east, the Hartford Hawks track and field team accomplished 11th place overall for both the men and women and shattered three school records. Coach Kathy Manizza was happy with the team’s performance.

“I am very pleased to have had both teams finish in 11th place,” Manizza said. “That may not sound as good as it really is, but with the level of competition that was there, it is terrific.”

Some of the athletes continued their momentum in several events after great performances at the Wesleyan Invitational last week. Sophomore Andrew Chalmers had another great outing in the 5000-meter run, topping his previous record of 15:41:01 with a time of 15:30.65. Chalmers finished in first place in the same event at Wesleyan. Graduate student Mike Dupaul proved that his great performance last week was not only record-breaking, but underachieving. Dupaul topped the record he set the week before by almost two seconds, finishing fourth overall.

Sophomore Anderson Emerole took home first in last week’s 400-meter dash and had another great showing placing fourth overall on Friday. His teammate Warren Lane, who finished second in the 400-meter dash last week, capitalized on another second place finish at Friday’s meet. His time of 1:05.78 added eight points to his team.

Rudy Cowan, Eric Ciccone, Warren Lane and Anderson Emerole were successful in the 4×400-meter relay for a second week in a row, adding points to the men’s team. The group finished fourth overall in the event.

For the women’s 4×400-meter relay, Priscilla Appiagyei, Marisa Poleto, Nicole McClintock and Ariana Bass finished in seventh place with a combined time of 4:03.41. Appiagyei also competed in the 400-meter dash finishing eighth.

After having great success at the Wesleyan Invitational last week, sophomore Nicolle Adams and freshman Diana Kornberg each followed up in Boston.
Adams, who controlled first place honor last week in the triple jump, had a leap of 5.40-meters in the long jump this week. Her performance knotted the women six points in the event. Kornberg, who threw for a school shot put record last week, continued the trend in dominating the record set by about 1.5 meters. Her throw solidified a fifth place standing.

The track and field team has just two more meets in their short indoor season left before the America East Championships on February 19 and 20.

“With each meet, the athletes gain a little confidence and that will be very important to us going into the championships,” Manizza added.

Next on the Hawks’ schedule is a Feb. 6 venture to Hanover, N.H., to compete in the Dartmouth Indoor Classic.

Editor’s Note: The photo credit in the printed edition of the newspaper was misattributed. It is corrected here. We regret the error.