University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
NCAA Northeast Regional
Three-Huskies Garner All-Northeast Region Honors
11/15/2019 1:59:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The UConn men's cross country team turned in a strong performance at Friday's NCAA Northeast Regional in Buffalo. For just the third time in program history, three Huskies finished with All-Region honors as UConn placed three runners inside the top-20 finishers.
As a team, the Huskies took home eighth place with 277 total points in the 37 team field. Friday's 10K race was moved off the Audubon Golf Course by the NCAA due to concerns about poor footing, ice and student-athlete safety. The NCAA utilized a road course for Friday's race. Harvard was the race winner, finishing the day three runners in the top-five and a total of 59 points.
For UConn, the trio of r-junior Eric Van Der Els (Norwalk, Conn.) and sophomores Will Brisman (Fairfield, Conn.) and James Maniscalco (Fairfield, Conn.) have been the Huskies' solid top-three all season and today was no different. The threesome all earned All-Northeast Region accolades with finishes inside the top-20.
"The last time we had three guys finish all-region was 1999 and before that was 1990," stated director of cross-country and track & field Greg Roy. "Just fantastic to see that today. Great way to finish our season and we moved-up another spot in our regional rankings. I am disappointed for Eric that he just missed qualifying for the NCAA Championship but that overall, this was a heck of a way to end our year."
Van Der Els took home a 15th place finish in the race and did so after almost a disastrous start to his day. "Eric just missed the fourth individual qualifying spot," commented Roy. "He really showed something today. After he fell right at the start, gets trampled over, is in last place; he picks himself up and just battles his way back. Real, real gritty performance. Loved to see that." Van Der Els was across the line in a time of 29:08.3 as UConn's top-finisher.
In 17th place overall was Maniscalco who had Brisman right on his heels in the 18th spot. The duo finished with times of 29:12.6 and 29:17.0, respectively. "Huge races by James and Will today," said Roy. "He has been flirting with it all fall but James really put a full race together for the first time today. And Will was right out front for a long, long time and really came on the last 3K."Â
The UConn freshmen got their first taste of an NCAA regional and were all inside the top-140 finishers in a race that featured 265 runners. Freshman Kabir Chavan (Fairfield, Conn.) was 102nd overall (30:45.5) followed by classmate Angel Vicioso (Norwalk, Conn.) who was 127th (31:02.4) to round out UConn's top-five. Freshman Jacob Russo (Hudson, Ohio) was 135th (31:10.4) followed by classmate Jeremy Bronstein (Tolland, Conn.) in 136th (31:11.4).
"You know the question pre-meet was can we take another jump up and the answer obviously was yes," stated the head coach. "Just look at the leap that Eric and Will took from last year to this year. And James, who wasn't even here last year. This team got better and better each week. As a head coach, that is all you can hope for. Just a great ending to this season."
Players Mentioned
