Feb. 18, 2010

The UMass Lowell women's and men's track and field teams take part in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship tonight at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletics Center in Boston.

The women look to repeat last year's championship, their fifth title in the eight years the Conference has sponsored track and field. Southern Connecticut is the only other school to win the indoor championship (2006, 2007, 2008).

On the men's side, the River Hawks look to break Southern's seven-year stronghold as the Owls have won the championship all but one year. UMass Lowell won the first-ever NE-10 championship in 2002.

Entering this year's women's meet, three individuals and a relay team are among the top seeds, led by senior Jacqui Barrett (Woburn, MA) in the shot put, who threw 48 feet, 5.5 inches at the Yale Giegengack Invitational.

UMass Lowell's 4X400 meter relay team is primed for the title as it leads the field with a time of 3:50.24, achieved at the Boston University St. Valentine's Day Invitational last week. Members include freshman Shannon Cunningham (Foxboro, MA), sophomores Nicole Giaquinto (Winthrop, MA) and Amy Delgado (Bridgewater, MA) and senior Haley Catarius (Marshfield, MA).

Additionally, sophomore Chrissy Silvar (Fitchburg, MA) leads the field in the pole vault as she cleared 11' 1.0'' at the Tufts Invitational Jan. 16.

On the men's side, the River Hawks lead the field in eight events, including the 4X400 relay (3:13.69, at BU), 4X800 (7:59.63, MIT Invitational) and distance medley relays (9:59.63, BU).

Individually, junior Donte Brown (Raynham, MA) ranked tops in the 400 meters with a time of 47.94 seconds (BU) while freshman Evan White (Tewksbury, MA) leads the 200 meter field (21.63, BU).

Junior Angus MacDonald (Methuen, MA) owns the top spot in the mile with a sterling 4:07.92 (BU), as does sophomore Jeff Veiga (Lowell, MA) in the 3,000 meters (8:28.20, BU).

Junior Cory Murray (Methuen, MA) is seeded first in the shot put with a distance of 53' 9.0, also achieved at BU.

UMass Lowell returns to action next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27, for the New England Championships at the BU Track & Tennis Center.