University of New Hampshire (UNH) track and field hosted Dartmouth, Hartford, Maine, UMass Lowell, and Vermont this Saturday, April 24 as both men’s and women’s team took home first place finishes. 

The women’s team looked to first-year athlete Elizabeth Martell who has been on a dominant stretch recently. 

The women took four first-place finishes which lifted them to a score of 175 on the day. The win was comfortable as second place Maine only tallied 120 points.  

The highlight of the day came from graduate student Alyssa Colbert and junior Sarah Williams who both set school records in their events. Colbert had a throw of 161-5 feet in the discus throw which secured a first-place finish in the event. Williams was not as fortunate as Colbert. She faced one of the deepest competition pools in the meet. Williams broke the school record with a throw of 44-8 1/4 feet but the toss was only good enough for second place.  

Once again, Martell earned a first-place finish in the 400-meter dash. Martell ran a time of 56.91 seconds.  

The ‘Cats dominated in the 5000-meter dash as they took the top four finishes. Leading the pack was graduate student Elisabeth Danis who ran a final time of 17 minutes, 45.87 second, a personal record.  

The team of first-year athletes Natalie Fraser and Lilly Doody, and juniors Kelly Hamlin and Nicole Yeomans placed first in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 4:01.80. 

The men’s side saw nine first-place finishes in an overall dominant day. The men won the meet on Saturday with a score of 172 points which was enough to get past second-place Dartmouth who only totaled 127.  

The highlight of the day came from none other than junior Nate Hobbs who once again broke his own school record in the long jump with a distance of 24-10 1/2 feet meters.  

The first-place finishes in the field came from first-year athlete Joshua Hoffman, junior John King Jr.,  graduate student Zachary Astle and senior Jordan Buckmire.  

Hoffman led the pack in the discus with a distance of  159-1 feet, with Astle coming in second place.  

King Jr. earned himself a first-place finish in the javelin with a throw of 180-9 feet.  

Although Astle did not place first in the discus, he found redemption in the hammer throw and shot put with a first-place finish in each. In the hammer, Astle threw a career best distance of 194-8 feet and threw a distance of 56-3 1/4 in the shot put.  

Buckmire found himself a first-place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 47-3/4 feet which was just enough to beat out teammate Hobbs who placed second with a distance of 45-5 1/4.  

The first-place finishes on the track came from graduate student Nicolas Sevilla-Connelly, senior Michael Monahan, senior James Wilkes and the relay team that consisted of Monahan,  junior Emmanuel Nkounkou, first-year athlete William Love and junior Brian Genet.  

Sevilla-Connelly ran a career-best time in the 1500-meter dash with a time of  3:52.58.  

While Monahan was also part of the relay team that placed first he also earned himself a first-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles with a career-best time of 14.79 seconds. Wilkes won the 800-meter dash with a career-best time of 1:50.19.  

The 4×100 relay team of Monahan, Nkounkou, Love and Genet placed first with a final time of 44.66 seconds. 

The ‘Cats return to competition on May 1-2 as they look to carry over the momentum from Saturday’s meet when they travel to America East Championships at UMass Lowell.  

Photo courtesy of UNH Athletics.