By Dylan Botelho, Staff Writer
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men and women’s track teams stole the show at the Little East Conference/New England Alliance Championships this past Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island. Five members from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth teams came out of the event with first place finishes in each of their respective events.
Taylor Walsh was the first competitor to win their event on the day. She became the fifth Corsair to win the 1000-meter run at the event, beating her previous best time by a whole six seconds to take home both the New England Alliance and Little East Conference victory with a 3:09.30 finish. Her closest competitor was behind her by less than a second.
Jessica O’Reilly took the top-spot in the Little East Conference for the 3000-meter run, beating her closest competitor by seen seconds as she bested her own previous best time by 13 seconds. Her 11:00.83 finish put her in second as well for New England Alliance Championship.
Away from the track, sophomore Mackenzie Garvey beat her previously held furthest distance in shot put when she tossed a throw of 12.17 meters to beat her closest opponent by three feet and gain the first-place spot in the Little East Conference as well as second in the New England Alliance.
For the men, first-year Moisse Irizarry recorded personal bests in every single event he competed in. He also recorded a new personal best as well as a Little East Conference record in the 60-meter hurdles as he raced to an 8.37 second completion to earn him both the Little East Conference and New England Alliance Championships. With his time of 8.37, Irizarry is only one-tenth of a second from being ranked within the top-15 of the entire country. Irizarry continued to impress later in the day when he just beat out teammate Joao Baptista for first place in the high-jump for the Little East Conference. The duo of Irizarry and Baptista where at the top of the conference with their matched height of 1.98m.
George Papoulis set the New England Alliance record back in 2017 and nearly beat it again this year. Papoulis came away with first-place in the 600-meter with a time of 1:21.09 and then later again alongside teammates Travis Dolcine, Tyree Gorham, and Bruno Pires in the 4×800 meter as their 8:12.06 finish secured them first-place in both the Little East Conference and New England Alliance.
In the field, Jared Louf-Woods took home both the Little East Conference and New England Alliance’s first-place spots while setting both New England Alliance and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth records in the processed for the shot put and weight throw competitions., In the shot put, his toss of 16.23m was six feet ahead of the next closest while in the weight throw he recorded a distance of 19.23m. With those tosses, he maintained his top-spot nationally for the weight throw and moved up to ninth in the country in shot put.
In the team portions of the Little East Conference/New England Alliance Championships, the women’s team came in fifth in the Little East Conference and eighth in the New England Alliance. The men’s team secured second place in the Little East Conference and third in the New England Alliance.