STATEN ISLAND, New York. – Coming off their strong strong seasons last season, head coach Shaunnaya Williams enters her 13th season in charge of the University of New Haven Men's and Women's Track Teams. The men's team entered to finish second in the conference, as the women's team was picked to finish fifth by the coaches poll. The blue and gold opened up their season down in Staten Island competing at the Fastrack Season Opener at Ocean Breeze Park.
Leaving off where he finished at the end of outdoor, Jordanny Dely continued to dominate in the hurdles opening up his indoor campaign by running the third fastest time of qualifying crossing in 8.24, the fastest of his heat. In the finals Dely shaved (.16) seconds off his qualifying time crossing with a time of 8.08, finishing him second overall in the meet. Dely's time of 8.08 was also fast enough as he ran an NCAA provisional mark.
On the women's side, Gabrielle Teel (Willow Grove, Pa./Upper Moreland) finished second overall in the triple jump. Teel who had a strong freshman year continued to call the sand pit her home opening up with a mark of 10.91 meters. Teel followed that jump up with increasing marks before jumping her best mark of 11.25m on her third jump moving up the scoreboard and finishing her second overall in the meet.
Jimmy Oreste (/) needed just one throw to finish him third overall in the men's weight throw and that big throw came on his final through where he landed a toss at 15.42m climbing up the leaderboard and into third place for the meet.
Jason Lorent (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) competed in the men's 60m dash invitational and opened up the qualifying with a time of 6.92. With the fastest time of prelims, Lorent shaved .03 off his time in the finals running a 6.89 in the finals finishing him second overall in the meet.
With one meet in the books, the Chargers now return closer to home competing at the Art Kadish Elm City Challenge hosted by the blue and golds cross-town rival, Southern Connecticut State University. The meet will span two days beginning on Friday, December 8, and concluding on Saturday, December 9. All updates, schedules, and post-meet recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.
