By Jonathan Moniz, Staff Writer
At the Reggie Lewis Center, seven competitors from UMass Dartmouth were qualified to compete at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association.
The NEICAA hosts events ranging from track field to cross country, and features track and field events both indoors and outdoors.
The event this past Saturday was hosted indoors and a number of schools attended, from UMass Dartmouth to UMass Boston, UMass Amherst, Fitchburg State, South Connecticut State, MIT, and more.
The schools come from all over New England and come to this championship to compete against the other universities and colleges.
The event features participations from both teams, men’s and women’s, and focuses on all the events in the various sports.
With everything from women’s weight throw to the men’s long jump, from shot put to the indoor pentathlon and sixty meter hurdles, there is every type of event there. The distinction is that for the competitor to qualify for the championships, they have to be the best in their events for their chosen fields or events.
Seven members of the UMass Dartmouth track and field teams from both the men’s and women’s teams managed to qualify throughout the track and field season, amongst them George Papoulis, Reme DiGiovanni, Alex MacMillan, Travis Dolcine, Jared Louf-Woods, Greg Betsold, and Joao Baptista.
Papoulis started the qualifiers for UMass Dartmouth with the men’s 800 meter-run, ending with eighth place for the race. His time was one-minute and fifty three seconds.
He was the only runner from the Corsairs team to qualify for the finals.
DiGiovanni was the lone woman from the women’s track and field teams to compete, running the mile for the championship. Out of thirty-one competitors for the mile, she placed twentieth with a time of 5 minutes and 10 seconds, ranking before many Division I and II competitors.
For the 200 meter dash and the 1,000-meter run, Dolcine and MacMillan came forth to race. Dolcine ranked eighth amongst the 1,000-meter, beating out a personal with 3.5 seconds to spare. His final time was 2 minutes and 33 seconds, earning 16 place.
Louf-Woods again returned to weight throw with Betsold to play for UMass Dartmouth.
Louf-Woods threw a distance of 16 meters, taking eighth place while Betsold earned 17 with 15 meters. They were playing for the postseason competition for UMass Dartmouth.
For the jumping contests representing the Corsairs track and field was Baptista.
Baptista earned 13 out of fifteen other players, jumping for a total of 1.94 meters. He was only competitors for the jumping match from UMass Dartmouth.
The NEICAA championships qualifiers will continue on throughout the season, with potentially more schools and such coming forth to rank amongst the field and compete in the championships.
The next round of qualifiers will take place on Sunday, March 5, at Boston University and also at Tufts to determine who moves on to the NEICAA.