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LOWELL, Mass. – For the UMass Lowell track and field teams this is the weekend they have been waiting for; the two-day America East Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted at the Track and Tennis Center at Boston University.

"Both teams have had a really good season to this point," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Gary Gardner.  "Everyone has had a (personal record) at some point during the season.  Now it's about competing.  It's not about times, it's about beating people."

The nine-team championships take place Friday and Saturday.  Preliminaries and some finals are scheduled for Friday.  All of Saturday's events will be finals.

River Hawk men are the defending champions.  They took the title from Albany a year ago in the final event of the weekend.  The UMass Lowell win ended a twelve year run by the Great Danes.  Albany had won fourteen of the previous 15 men's championships.

Winning a first time was anything but easy and Gardner says defending that title will not be any easier.

"Our top people have to be our top people, but we have to have multiple scorers in as many events as possible," according to Gardner.  "It's very tough.  Albany is well coached, they're deep and their kids compete.  It's a tall task."

Gardner hopes that River Hawk men will finish in the top two.  The women's team has shown steady improvement since the University transitioned into Division I.  They finished third a year ago after finishing fifth the year before and finishing seventh the year before that.

"We have multiple kids who are capable of scoring in most events," said Gardner.  "But we will have to compete hard to be in the top three."

In meets such as these, it is rarely about an individual; it's about depth.  "There are no weak events for us," said Gardner.  "We have to do well across the board.  We're pretty balanced, but we have to take care to make sure that there are no slip ups.  You can't have a bad event.  It's all about competing; you've got to beat as many people as you can."

For both the men and the women the middle distance and longer distance events may prove to be key.  It is an area in which both teams have a great deal of depth and the potential for several people to score in the same event and some people capable of competing in a series of events.  

Grad student Paul Hogan (Burlington, Mass.) is expected to compete in both the 3,000 and the 5,000-meters.  He tops the conference Performance List in both events.  Junior Christopher Alfond (Ashby, Mass.) may compete in both as well.  He's in the top five in both events.

Senior Sean Munnelly (Litchfield, N.H.), the defending champion in the 800-meters is expected to compete in the 800, the 4 x 800 and the Distance Medley Relay.  

Junior Kaley Richards (Lowell, Mass.) may very well take on a challenging triple.  She may compete in the DMR, the mile and the 3,000-meters.  Freshman Izzy Giesing (Bradford, Vermont) may also do triple duty in the 800-meters, the 4 x 800 and the DMR.

Off the track, grad student Kerstin Darsney (Rowley, Mass.) is expected to be busy with the high, long and triple jump.  She is in the top three, on the performance list, in each of those events.  She is ranked number one in the triple jump.

Junior Danielle Poublon (Nashua, N.H.) tops the performance list in the high jump.  

Junior Heath King (Amesbury, Mass.) is ranked second in the pole vault behind teammate grad student Vladimir Popusoi (Greenfield, Mass.).  Popusoi has been sidelined by an injury and will not compete.

The America East Indoor Track and Field Championships get underway on Friday with a series of preliminaries and a small group of finals.  The championships continue with a full day of finals on Saturday.  For the River Hawks, the key on Friday is to get as many people through to Saturday as possible.