BOSTON, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's indoor track and field team started the 2025-26 indoor season competing in two different events in Massachusetts, as the team sent a larger group to the Harvard Classic, and a small unit to the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University, on Saturday. 

"Overall, we are pretty happy with how today went," said Associate Head Coach Allyson Waruch. "The meet had some good competition for people to test themselves and see their preseason work pay off. It's always great to see the upperclassmen have better performances than they did on opening weekend last year. I was pleased to see a lot of freshmen show up to compete how we hoped they could."

The first running event of the day was the 5,000m at the Harvard Classic, which was led by sophomore Patrick Hall (Billerica, Mass.) in seventh place with a 15:06.29 mark. Sophomore Jack Courtney was next, claiming 11th with a time of 15:39.41, before junior Dean Allen (Chelmsford, Mass.) finished in 15th place with a 15:52.36 mark. Junior Nicolas Uzzo (East Bridgewater, Mass.) rounded out the River Hawk runners in 16th with a 16:11.15 mark. Next, in the 3,000m race, senior Joshua Rivers (Manchester, N.H.) was the lone runner for the squad, finishing 10th with a 9:06.48 mark. 

Seven runners raced in the mile, as sophomore Tyler Young (Marion, Mass.) claimed third with a time of 4:22.36, before freshman Josh Toth's (Milton, Mass.) 4:22.50 mark earned him fourth place. Junior Pedro Mayol (Lincoln, R.I.) (4:24.31), senior Basit Iddriss (Milford, Conn.) (4:24.64) and freshman JJ Rooney (Danvers, Mass.) (4:26.34) all crossed the finish line consecutively in sixth, seventh and eighth place. Freshman Jackson Beauparlant (4:30.23) and freshman Patrick Croughwell (Norwich, Conn.) (4:52.42) both participated as well, claiming 10th and 12th place, respectively. 

Freshman Raymond Dafe (Lowell, Mass.) was the lone finisher in the 400m, taking home sixth place with a 51.00 mark, while freshman Abdul Jalloh (Lowell, Mass.) finished fourth in the 1,000m as the only UMass Lowell runner with a time of 2:37.24. Junior Willem Eisl (Princeton, Mass.) represented the squad in the 500m, taking 10th place with a time of 1:18.56. 

The men then moved on to the first round of the 60m hurdles, where junior Brandon Riley (Weymouth, Mass.) and senior Tristan O'Riorden finished in eighth and ninth place, respectively with times of 8.41 and 8.47. Junior Nidlaire Olivier (Lowell, Mass.) was just behind them in 12th with a 8.51 mark and senior Derek Munroe (Tewksbury, Mass.) rounded out the team in 17th (8.86). In the 60m dash, junior Daniel Kennedy (Tolland, Conn.) advanced to the finals and finished in fifth with a 6.98 mark. 

The River Hawks found success in the 200m, taking the top four spots. In order, it was Tristan O'Riorden (1st, 22.05), sophomore Iyanuoluwapo Omisore (Lagos, Nigeria) (2nd, 22.09), sophomore Michael Fisher (Wallingford, Conn.) (3rd, 22.13) and sophomore Dmitrius Shearrion (Taunton, Mass.) (4th, 22.35). Senior Alejandro Lynch (Somerville, Mass.) then finished in seventh with a 22.57 mark, followed by senior Brett Earle (Baldwinville, Mass.) in ninth place with a time of 22.81. Sophomore Michael Gyimah (Kumasi, Ghana) and senior Bradley Diaz claimed 12th and 13th place, respectively, with times of 22.84 and 22.92. 

In the field events, sophomore Camren Allain (Carver, Mass.) and Riley got it started in the high jump. Allain claimed sixth with a 1.95m mark, while Riley finished in 10th with a 1.90m jump. In the weight throw, freshman Kevin Vigneault (Jamesville, N.Y.) represented the River Hawks and finished in seventh with a 13.44m toss. This led to the long jump, where Rere Edokpolo (Manchester, N.H.) led the team in 10th with a 6.31m leap and junior Kuzey Kaya (Winchester, Mass.) claimed 12th with a 6.02m mark. Munroe led the River Hawks in the pole vault, earning sixth-place honors and clearing 4.45m. Sophomore Sawyer O'Riorden (Stow, Mass.) picked up a 4.15m mark for ninth place. 

The shot put featured four River Hawks, and it was Vigneault that was the top UMass Lowell finisher in sixth place with a 15.15m toss. Freshman Kenny Kalvinek (Sutton, Mass.) was right behind him on the leaderboard in seventh with a 14.90m mark, before graduate student Ian Camerato (Mount Laurel, N.J.) earned eighth place with a throw of 14.71m. Freshman Reznor Rokicki (Loveland, Ohio) finished in 10th place with a 13.22m mark. The long jump rounded out the field events for the team, and sophomore Jack Shepherd was the lone competitor, taking fifth place with a 13.78m leap.

The River Hawks sent a few members of the men's indoor track and field team to the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danvil Season Opener. The team started with the one-mile run, as graduate student Andrew Benassi (Reading, Mass.) was the first to cross the finish line for UMass Lowell, earning 29th place at a 4:09.76 mark. Sophomore Jamie Lano (Strafford, N.H.) followed behind, claiming 55th  place with a time of 4:22.87, and sophomore Sean Kerin (Walpole, Mass.) rounded out the River Hawks, placing 67th at 4:35.86. 

The next event for UMass Lowell was the men's 3k event, with junior Nicholas Marcotte (Hudson, N.H.) leading the way for the River Hawks, claiming 83rd place at a personal-best time of 8:22.56. Freshman William Simard (Francestown, N.H.) stayed attached, finishing in 86th place at a personal-best 8:24.20 mark, with senior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.) rounding out the UMass Lowell runners in 103rd place (8:30.75), respectively.

The men's 5k run was the last event for the River Hawks, as graduate student Wouter Van Den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) was the first to cross for UMass Lowell, earning 61st place after clocking in at a personal-best time of 13:54.77. Sophomore Devin Moreau (Tyngsboro, Mass.) followed, taking 110th place at a personal-best time of 14:07.97, while graduate student William Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.) was next in 131st place at a personal-best 14:16.37 mark. Senior Sean Kennedy-Wonneberger (East Haddam, Conn.) also competed, running unattached and hitting a personal-best time of 13:55.44 for 65th place. 

"We had a host of great early season performances," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "Wouter, Sean and Devin all ran good personal bests in the 5000m run. Nick Marcotte and Will Simard ran tactically perfect to post big personal bests in the 3000m run. Overall, the day went as well as we could of hoped." 

"We certainly have a lot of room to get much better across all the events, and I'm excited to watch the team progress together and push each other to want and achieve more," added Waruch.

UMass Lowell is back in action on December 12-13, as the team looks ahead to the Dartmouth Invite, hosted by Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H.