By Owen Lee, Staff Writer
At UMass Boston’s Indoor Open at the Reggie Lewis Center, both the men’s and women’s indoor track team sent off the year with a strong showing. The Corsairs closed the meet with an excellent 12 finishes in the top 10. Although the event was non-scoring, it sets an excellent precedent for future competitions going into the rest of winter and spring.
UMass senior Jared Louf-Woods led the charge with two separate event wins in weight throwing and shot put, breaking an old school record in the former. He tossed weights for a distance of 59-6.25 (or 18.14 meters), surpassing the previous UMass record of 58-75 set by Robert Yarbough in 2012.
He threw shot for a respectable distance of 48-4.75. As of this meet, Louf-Woods now holds both UMass indoor throwing records. A second UMass record was almost broken by sophomore George Papoulis, who completed the 500-meter run with a time of 1:04.06, just barely reaching the previous time of 1:04.50 that was set by Matt Hinthorne.
The men’s team earned two top-10 finishes in the mile and in the 1000-meter. First-year Bruno Pires led with his second place finish at 4:25.74, followed by Travis Dolcine in seventh at 4:31.37. First-year Moisse Irizarry competed in the men’s 400-meter dash and gained a new personal best time, taking 11th out of 58 with a time of 51.92. Wrapping up the top-five Corsair runs was junior Jason Karakaedos (Peabody, Mass.), who put forth a strong second-place finish of 32 in the 3000-meter run in 8:56.60. Closing the top-five Corsair runs was junior Jason Karakaedos, who finished the 3000-meter run in 8:56.60, earning an excellent second place out of 32.
The women’s team brought their all as well. Senior Raybryana Dasher competed excellently in both the 400-meter dash, where she achieved second place with a time of 59.68, and the 200-meter dash, where she made ninth with a time of 26.87.
Two of the team’s newcomers, first year Taylor Walsh and sophomore MacKenzie Garvey both put forth great precedents in their first meet of the season. Walsh placed second of 17 in the 1000-meter run with a time of 3:15.18, while Garvey took shot put with a distance of 36-4.75, placing sixth out of a crowded competition of 43.
The next meet is at the Tufts Invitational at Medford, Massachusetts, in January. Maybe the Corsairs fought so hard this meet so they could end 2017 with a bang. We can only hope that they can keep bringing the heat after their holiday hiatus.