Results

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Five River Hawks athletes grabbed first places finishes on the final day of competition, Saturday, at the Allan Connie Shamrock Invitational hosted by Coastal Carolina University, at Doug Shaw Stadium.

"It was a good day with several strong performances to open the season," said UMass Lowell Track and Field Head Coach Gary Gardner.  "We had a good week of training and good performances in competition;  we accomplished what we set out to accomplish.  This should set us up well for the outdoor season." 

It was the first outdoor meet of the season and the culmination of a week of workouts along the South Carolina coast.  Gardner simply described the week as "a ton of work."

Two UMass Lowell athletes who'd been sidelined health issues or injuries returned to competition with top notch performances.  Sophomore Chloe Eressy (Centerville, Mass.) and grad student Vladimir Popusoi (Greenfield, Mass.) won their specialties.

Eressy, returning after surgery on her hand, won the shot put with a personal best throw of 46-feet, 6.25-inches.  The mark came on the last of her six throws.  The toss was marked some eight-inches farther than her nearest challenger.

"That's a great way to return to competition and open the outdoor season," said Gardner.  "She's a strong kid with a fast arm.  She'll still working on technique, but she's talented."

Teammate senior Jennifer Lee (Woburn, Mass.) finished third with a heave of 45' 2.25".

Popusoi, returning from a broken bone in his hand which had cut short his indoor season, won the pole vault clearing the bar at 15-feet, 11.25-inches.

"Vlad looks like Vlad again," according to Gardner.  "There was no pain, he's good to go."

The injury had prevented Popusoi from competing and limited his ability to work out Gardner believes that it should not effect his outdoor season.  

"He was able to do some running and cross training," according to Gardner.  "Through the indoor season and now he's making good attempts and good heights.  He appears to have picked it up where he left off."

UMass Lowell also took first place finishes in three track events.

Freshman Izzy Giesing (Bradford, Vermont) won the mile run and junior Kaley Richards (Lowell, Mass.) won the 800-meters.  For Giesing, it was the first time she had run the mile as a collegiate.  Gardner had given both runners a similar plan; a controlled race.  "Sit and kick." In other words run with the leaders and go for it in the last 100-meters and in both cases it proved successful.

Giesing clocked in with a time of five-minutes, 03.95-seconds, nearly five-seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

"She ran a strong race especially because she had to deal with 20 mile per hour wind gusts" according to Gardner.  "She ran smart."

The challenge for Richards was a bit different.  She got boxed in by a couple of competitors in a race that was no longer than 800-meters.

"She put herself in a difficult position," said Gardner.  "But she got herself out of it."

Richards hit the finish line in a time of 2:14.78, just some seven-tenths of a second ahead of the second place finisher.

Sophomore Cody Moran (Weymouth, Mass.) won the men's mile.  He posted a time of 4:21.50.  The performance was impressive in that Moran was seeded in what was considered the slower section.  His time was twelve one-hundredths of a second better than that posted by the winner in the first section.

Senior Leyshla Gonzalez (Lowell, Mass.) had a strong weekend.  She turned in a series of strong performances both in the preliminaries and the finals or the 100 and 200-meter events.  Gonzalez finished third in the 100-meters and fifth in the slightly longer event.

UMass Lowell will be off next weekend before returning March 29th for competition at the Raleigh Relays and the UMass Lowell invitational on the following day.