Men, women win Big East outdoor titles
STORRS — It was already an emotional day Saturday for UConn track and field director Greg Roy. He was retiring after 37 years and it was his last Big East championship meet.
The UConn men’s and women’s teams sent him out with a fitting flourish - the Huskies won both titles for the first time in the same year all while hosting the meet on their home track.
The men won the title last year but the women had not won an outdoor conference title since 1995.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Roy, choking up a little. “The men were clearly the favorite and they were a program we built to this point.
“The women, we’ve been building them over three years, the three hardest years of my career, between coronavirus and my health - we are at a place I thought we’d be two years ago and it was really hard to get here. But they learned how to win. Last year, it was get your [butt] kicked by Villanova. This year it was learn to win and they won.”
The men’s team scored 258 points and runner-up Georgetown was a distant second (125). The women scored 209 points, holding off second-place Villanova (156).
The men got performances like a gutsy win from Eric Van Der Els, a sixth-year senior from Norwalk, in the 1,500. Van Der Els pulled ahead down the last straightaway after getting stuck in traffic during the race, edging out Butler’s Jesse Hamlin with a time of 3:46.64. Hamlin was second in 3:46.88.
“With Coach Roy retiring, it’s just nice to do everything for him, win for him, get some good races in,” Van Der Els said. “We’ve been working for six years together so it’s nice to end with a good season.”
Jordan Torney won the men’s decathlon after fellow top decathlete Nicholas Pronovost tore his Achilles during Friday’s competition and wasn’t able to compete.
“The kids just know what to do and they know how to do it,” Roy said. “You put them out there and they take care of business. Somebody goes down, somebody steps up. Our decathlete tore his Achilles, our double-gold medalist in
the 100 and 200 last year [Joseph O’Brien] tore his hamstring [Friday] so he couldn’t compete today but somebody steps right in.”
Terrel Williams (100 hurdles) and Wellington Ventura (400 hurdles) won titles for UConn Saturday. Ventura had a bad accident his freshman year, falling over a hurdle and breaking his elbow but after some time off from the event, he started doing it again last year and won the title, then won it again Saturday in 50.61.
Patricia Mroczkowski, a UConn junior who was the top seed in the high jump, ended up getting second Saturday after a jump-off against Villanova’s Sanaa Barnes, but Mroczkowski had a personal best of 6 feet,
1 ¼ inches.
“In our program, that’s called a championship performance,” Roy said. “You can’t be better than your best.”
Gabrielle Davis was another winner for UConn in the 400 hurdles in 1:00:26, edging out Renee Newton of Georgetown (1:00.32).
“It is pretty emotional, especially with a lot of the seniors and fifth years that are leaving, they’ve been waiting for this and waiting to compete here and have Big East here at home,” Mroczkowski said. “With Coach Roy’s last year, all he wants us is to win together as a team because we combined [programs] three years ago as men and women, so this is exciting for him and I’m glad he could experience it in his last year.”