NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The New Haven Men's and Women's track team found themselves competing against some of the largest schools in the northeast when they traveled to Boston to compete in the NEICAAA Championship held at the Reggie Lewis Center. At the All-New-England Championships, the top eight athletes in each event receive All New-England honors. The two-day competition saw the blue and gold named All New-England in seven different events. Kristen Washington (New Haven, Conn./James Hillhouse) led all athletes to earn All New-England recognition in not one, but two events.
Kristen Washington (New Haven, Conn./James Hillhouse) shined in the sand pit as she placed seventh in both the long jump and the triple jump. After fouling her first two jumps, she found her stride on the next three runs before she jumped her best in finals, at (5.45m). Her fifth jump of the day put her on the leaderboard at seventh place. She wasn't done there, Washington returned to the pit competing in the triple jump. It took her only one jump to land a (10.99m), which was further then her seeded jump, and landed her a second All New-England award.
On the track, Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) and Abdiel Tejada continued their friendly competition in the 60m hurdles. That competition pushed both Chargers onto the leaderboard in the event. After running the competitions overall best time (8.30) in the qualifying round, Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) found himself primed for the finals followed by Abdiel Tejada who finished third in the qualifier round with a time of (8.36), followed by teammate Jordan Emile (/) with (8.40). The finals saw Tejada trim five hundredths of a second of his qualifier time to beat out Dely for a second place finish in the hurdles final (8.29), which was also two hundredths of a second off of his school record in the event. Dely finished just behind Tejada with a time of (8.32) followed by Emile who placed sixth with a time of (8.51).
The sand pit found more success for the chargers as two more blue and gold athletes earned accolades in the triple jump. Jonathan Cineus (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) found his wings on his fifth jump of the day in the finals round, where he beat out his seeded jump at (14.24m). That jump flew Cineus to a third place overall finish in the event to be named All New-England. Not far behind was teammate Zerion Montgomery (/), who found himself on the leaderboard. Montgomery also found his stride in finals, landing a jump of (13.85m), which placed him sixth overall.
To cap off the two day meet, the men's 4x400 relay grabbed a seventh place finish to earn another All New-England award. The team of Nile Colson (Rochester, N.Y./Aquinas Institute), Blake Jandreau (Wallingford, Conn./Lyman Hall), Brett Deri (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) and Nathaniel Peters (/) crossed the line in (3:23.90), closing out the championship for the Chargers.
The blue and gold return to the track next week, in New York, to compete in the Rutgers Indoor Open, a two day event that starts on Friday the 11th and concludes on Saturday the 12th.
