BOSTON, Mass. – After a season of preparation it finally came time for the University of New Haven Men's Track and Field team to take the track and compete against the best of the best in the conference for the Northeast 10 Conference Championships at the Track at New Balance. Ahead of the meet, Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) was named an athlete to watch at the meet and did just that, leading the way for the blue and gold.
After being named an athlete to watch, Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) made sure all eyes were on him in the 60 meter hurdles. After running the fastest time in qualifying with a 8.20 on Thursday, Dely returned to the track on Friday for the finals. In the finals Dely ran the fastest time again running an 8.23 beating his closest competition by .12 second. Dely took home the hurdles gold medal a week after winning the New England hurdles gold medal. Dely's closest competition in the event was his own teammate Jordan Emile (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) who finished second to Dely crossing with a time of 8.35 to take the silver medal in the hurdles as the two combined to claim 18 points for New Haven.
The sandpit was a home away from West Haven, for the Chargers and Cole Parker (Severn, Md./Annapolis Area Christian School) and Kenneth Holland (Circleville, N.Y./Pine Bush) continued to call it home for the long jump where they both earned All Conference accolades following their second and third place finish in the long jump. Parker who finished second with a final mark of 6.81 meters narrowly beat out his teammate Kenneth Holland (Circleville, N.Y./Pine Bush) who finished with a mark of 6.80m in the event taking home six and eight points for the team. Parker hit his mark on his third jump as Holland waited until his final jump to close the gap and finish just on the heels of Parker for the pairs second and third place finish.
The Chargers found more success in the pit finishing second, third and fourth in the triple jump with Jonathan Cineus (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) leading the way followed by Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) and Rutchlor Louis (Spring Valley, N.Y./Ramapo) . Cineus who waited until his very last jump to get his best mark landed his second place finishing 14.07m jump to earn him the silver medal. Dely coming off his gold medal in the hurdles jumped right in and found his stride for his third jump landing a mark of 13.60m which was the third best in the field. Louis, who also had his best mark on his third jump finished with a mark of 13.54m to finish fourth overall with the trio claiming 19 points for the blue and gold.
Jordany Dely (Spring Valley, N.Y./Paramus Catholic) continued to find his way to the podium earning a bronze medal in the high jump with a mark of 1.88m. Dely who entered the competition at 1.78m cleared that on his first attempt before clearing 1.83 on his second attempt and cleared 1.88m on his first try. Dely who finished in a three way tie in the event for third led the pack of Chargers with Nathaniel Peters (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) finishing with a mark of 1.83m followed by Elijah Smith (Atlanta, Ga/George) at 1.78m and Isiah Gibson (Rahway, NJ/Linden) clearing 1.78.
Jason Lorent (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) took home a bronze medal in the 60m dash crossing with a time of 6.98. In prelims on Thursday Lorent ran the third fastest time running 6.99 in qualifying before shaving the extra .01 off his time to find the podium and the bronze medal.
Ryan Williams (Malverne, N.Y./Valley Stream North) took home a bronze medal in the 400m running a time of 49.26.
Cole Parker (Severn, Md./Annapolis Area Christian School) won the bronze medal in the Heptathlon finishing with a final score of 4330 points during the competition. Parker finished second in the 60m dash, the high jump and the 60m hurdles.
The men's distance medley relay team of Jacob Carson (Seymour, Conn./Notre Dame (West Haven)), Justin Ortiz (Bethpage, N.Y./Island Trees), Jonathan Parmelee (Piscataway, N.J./Saint Joseph) and Mohammed Abunar (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull) ran a final time of 10:40.69 to finish fourth overall claiming five points for the Chargers.
The 4x400m relay team of Blake Jandreau (Wallingford, Conn./Lyman Hall), Nile Colson (Rochester, N.Y./Aquinas Institute), Ryan Williams (Malverne, N.Y./Valley Stream North) and Jordan Emile (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) added to the Chargers medal count, taking home the silver in the relay with a final time of 3:19.34.
Carlos Rivera (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) in the weight throw threw a new personal best and found himself finishing in fifth place in the event with a final throw of 15.66m. Rivera threw his personal best on his second throw needing only one warm up toss.
Overall the chargers finished with 10 medals, one gold, four silver and five bronze medals and finished second overall scoring 117 points in the meet. With the team silver the Chargers turn now return home proud with their accomplishments but hungry for more and hunting for the overall win. The Chargers return to the track for one final regular season meet competing at the Southern Connecticut State Last Chance Meet where the team will look to qualify and move up in ranking for the NCAA Division 2 Championships. The race for the last chance meet begins Saturday February 24 at Southern Conn. State. All updates, schedules and post meet recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.
