By Nick Rosa
Indoor track and field championships are already here and a young CCSU team looks very confident going into the NECs.
The CCSU track and field teams this year both look to improve upon last year’s finish at NECs, in which the men placed fifth and the women placed twelfth.
Going into NECs this year the men are currently ranked fourth, while the women are ranked eleventh.
So far this season the men have proven to be a talented team, and possibly the most skilled the school has ever seen.
“Potentially the strongest and deepest team so far but, both teams need to improve off of last year to say that they are a better team,” Coach Eric Blake said. “If we keep improving, we’ll eventually end up in the right direction. It’s really a matter of going out and doing it.”
Blake strongly believes in his young team, especially this year where eight athletes from the men’s team broke school records and qualified for IC4A’s.
School records were broken by Rashad Williams in the shot, who threw 54-feet-10.25-inches, Mohamed Hrezi in the 1000 meter with a time of 2:25.52 and Sam Alexander in the 3K with a final of 8:33.78.
Matt Berube set the school record in the heptathlon with 4,514 points and Aaron Radden ran the 60 meter dash in 6.83.
Jeremy Schmid, Radden, Mike Waterbury and Hrezi set the school record in the Distance Medley Relay with a time of 9:56.67 this past weekend at Yale. This was the second time the record was set this season. Hrezi also set the new school record in the 800 this past weekend with a time of 1:51.69.
As of now, the high jump record is 6-feet-9.75-inches and Blake said he has three high jumpers who have the potential to break this record by the end of the indoor season. Matt Berube, Nick Trifone, and Denzell Jones have a shot at the school record and to qualify for IC4As.
Many other athletes have made the standards for the IC4As this season, as well. The Blue Devils will have the distance medley and 4 x 800 meter relays, Hrezi will compete in the 1,000 and Radden will run in the 60 meter and the 200 meter dashes. Other qualifiers include the team’s high jumpers, as well as Schmid, Hrezi and Waterbury in the 800. The team also has many athletes who qualified for the New England Championships.
This year CCSU has only been to two scoring meets and the rest were all non-scoring. At the Boston Indoor Games the men placed third and the women placed tenth. At the Albany Great Dane Invite the men placed fifth and the women placed fifteenth.
Two athletes were also awarded with NEC honors. Radden was named NEC athlete of the week twice this indoor season, one of which was a Co-NEC athlete of the week award. Denzell Jones received NEC rookie of the week for the first time for his performance in the high jump.
Radden’s 21.41 time in the 200 and 6.83 in the 60 meter this season are top marks among all NEC athletes. His 200 time is twenty-sixth best in the NCAA this season. He is also the reigning champion in both events and looks to win both once again.
Alexander is ranked third in the 3K for the NEC while the 4 x 800 and distance medley relays are ranked first.
Hrezi, Schmid, and Waterbury are also ranked in the NEC for their times in the 800. Hrezi is second, Schmid is third, and Waterbury is fourth.
The men and women are both competing this weekend at the NEC championships in Landover, Maryland.
