FULL RESULTS

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Behind seven All-Conference individual finishes and an All-Conference finish in the 4x400-meter relay, the New Haven men's track and field team posted its best team finish in program history, closing out the 2021 Northeast-10 Conference Championship in third place overall.

In the team standings, the Chargers collected 105 total points for the third place overall finish, placing one spot higher than predicted by the NE10 coaches in a pre-championship poll. Southern Connecticut took home the team title with 201.5 points while host American International finished as the runner-up with 176 points. Rounding out the top five was Franklin Pierce (85 points) and Adelphi (52).

Highlighting the All-Conference performances for the Blue and Gold were a trio of runner-up finishes, two individually followed up by the 4x400-meter relay team of Blake Jandreau (Wallingford, Conn./Lyman Hall), Jordany Dely (), Dante Gonzalez (Palisades Park, N.J./Palisades Park) and Kevin Leach Brown. The group finished the relay event in a time of 3:20.68, edging out the third place finishers from AIC by just under three seconds.  

Both Gonzalez and Leach Brown would collect their individual All-Conference accolades as well with Gonzalez finishing second in the high jump and Leach Brown part of a two-three finish in the 400-meter dash. Gonzalez finished the high jump hitting a height of 1.97 meters on his second attempt which matched that of the medalist who hit that height on his first attempt.

Leach Brown was joined in the top-three finish in the 400-meter dash by Jandreau as the pair finished just a half second apart. Leach Brown's second place time came in at 49.11 while Jandreau finished win a time of 49.63.

The Chargers picked up two more All-Conference honors in the hurdle events with AJ Tejada (Willimantic, Conn./E.O. Smith) finishing third in the 110-meter hurdles and Brett Deri (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) finishing the 400-meter hurdles in third overall. Tejada posted a time of 14.95 in the sprint hurdles, while Deri finished the longer hurdles event with a personal best time of 55 seconds flat.

The final two All-Conference finishes came in the field events with third place finishes in the triple jump and hammer throw. In the jumping event, the third place distance of 13.98 meters from Jonathan Cineus (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) started a string of four-straight Chargers in the standings as New Haven took third, fourth, fifth and sixth place accolades in the event.

It was in the hammer throw that Jonathan Pierre (Braintree, Mass./Archbishop Williams) saw his best of three finishes within the scoring eight. In the hammer, the graduate student hit a new personal best distance of 54.15 meters. That wasn't his only personal best on the meet as he also hit a new top distance in the discus with his fourth place finish throw of 43.98 meters. He would also score in the shot put where he finished eighth overall with a distance of 14.03 meters.

The men's track and field team will now turn its attention to the New England Outdoor Championship which will be held at Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Conn. on Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15. The women's track and field team will put its best to the test on Saturday afternoon as they close out the 2021 NE10 Championships hosted by American International.