University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
BIG EAST Championship
2011 BIG EAST Indoor Champions!!
2/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
Feb. 20, 2011
STORRS, Conn. - Behind two individual titles and 13 top-three finishes, the University of Connecticut men's track and field team won the 2011 BIG EAST Indoor Championship. Today's victory marked the third time that the Huskies have earned the crown in the last four seasons. The Huskies, who notched 136.75 points during the meet, edged out runner-up Notre Dame who tallied 132 points.
"Today's meet was a war. We needed just about every hand on board to earn the victory and that is what this team did," head coach Greg Roy said. "Winning by four points is a pretty slim margin of victory and when you score 136 points, four points isn't that much at all. We got up at the beginning of the day and we stayed up throughout the end of the meet, but Notre Dame just kept fighting back. It was a tremendous team victory for us today, everyone had great performances especially Mike Rutt and Aaron King. Everyone pretty much had to do something today and for the most part they did. Overall it was a great team performance and I am very proud of this team."
The Huskies were led to victory by junior Aaron King, who was named the Men's Most Outstanding Field Performer. King won one individual title while notching two other top three finishes. He won the heptathlon with a total of 5,444 points, becoming the first BIG EAST athlete to win the event three times during his career. He also placed second in the long jump with a mark of 7.51m and third in the triple jump with a distance of 14.98m.
Senior Mike Rutt was also impressive for UConn during the championship, earning the title in the 800m run for the second time in his career, finishing in a time of 1:50.10. Rutt was the runner-up in the 500m dash, crossing the line in 1:02.95 while he was also the anchor of the 4x400 relay team that finished sixth with a time of 3:14.81.
UConn had four of the top six finishers in the heptathlon, with King winning the event, Jesse Chapman placing fourth (5,088 pts), Sam Smith placing fifth (4,773 pts) and Sean Walsh earning a sixth place finish (4,560 pts). During the heptathlon competition, King won the 60m hurdles (8.30) and the long jump (7.28m) while Chapman was victorious in the shot put (14.05m).
The Huskies had a strong showing in sprint events during the championship, as four huskies placed in the top-five in three events combined. Jesse Drinks finished second in the 60m dash with a time of 6.85 while Darnell Cummings finished right behind him in third place with a time of 6.87. Cummings also recorded a fifth place finish in the 200m dash (21.93) while Kevin Steinberg placed third with a time of 21.88. Chris Whyte was the lone Husky to compete in the finals of the 400m dash, finishing fourth with a time of 48.49.
Seven of UConn's top-three finishes came in field events, as King, Mike Alleman, Joshua Faboyede, Kyle Duggan, Cory Duggan and Noel James led the Huskies. Alleman was runner-up in the shot put, recording a throw of 17.77m while James, Kyle Duggan, Cory Duggan and Faboyede finished third in their respective events. James recorded a clearance of 2.10m in the high jump, while both Cory and Kyle cleared 4.95m in the pole vault to tie for third place honors and Faboyede notched a throw of 18.51m in the weight throw, earning a third place finish.
After leading the Huskies to their third BIG EAST indoor title over the last four seasons, head coach Greg Roy, and assistant coaches Rich Miller and Ted Gibbons were named the BIG EAST Men's Coaching Staff of the Year.
Players Mentioned
