By Nick Rosa
This past indoor season the CCSU men’s track team finished an amazing Cinderella run to cap off the season with an NEC Championship; the first in program history.
After being ranked fourth this past indoor season and finishing first while placing third in last year’s outdoor NEC Championships, the Blue Devils look to make another run this upcoming outdoor season for the second consecutive NEC Championship.
The Blue Devils began the outdoor season this past weekend competing in a non-team scoring meet at Bryant University. The team recorded several good performances from its athletes.
Rashad Williams finished first in the shot with a throw of 15.03 meters and Aaron Radden finished fourth in the 400 meter with a time of 49.65 seconds. The freshmen members on the team, Andrew Hill and Leonardo Davidson also performed well. Hill finished seventh in the 1,500 meter run posting a time of 4:07.25 while Davidson posted a 41.25 meter toss in the discus to earn a eighth place finish. Sophomore Nick Lindblom took third in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 56.12 seconds.
The team is picking up right where it left off from indoor with strong performances from veterans and the younger freshmen.
“They are all talented individuals and if they keep it up I expect big things from them come crunch time and to be a big part in being contenders,” said Radden, the Northeast Conference MVP the past two indoor seasons, of the freshmen athletes on the team.
Earlier in the year, high jumper Matt Berube said he expected a top four finish in indoor and top three finish in outdoor. He proved himself wrong in indoor when the team won and now it could happen again this outdoor season.
Berube also noted that there are more events in outdoor which will lead to the team having a more of a competitive edge throughout the season.
Head Coach Eric Blake and his coaching staff won NEC coach/coaching staff of the year this past indoor season, expectations are only high for the talented young Blue Devil squad.
“I expect and honestly believe that we will function as one unit to pick up the points where we can. I don’t believe we should finish below third place. We raised the bar for ourselves and have to live up to that and show what we are capable of,” said Radden.
The bar is raised and the Blue Devils begin their journey for their first outdoor track and field championship in the program’s history.
The men and women Blue Devil teams return to action Sat. April 9 at the all day UConn invite.