The University of Rhode Island men’s track and field team made history on Friday at the Friar Invitational when second-year Nick Martin broke the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the second consecutive meet.

Just a week removed from Martin’s record-breaking time of 9:01.18 at the Ocean State Cup on April 4, Martin became the first Ram to run the 3,000-meter steeplechase in under nine minutes. Martin’s time of 8:59.14 was good enough for second place, only behind postgraduate Christopher Collett, who was running with Rhode Island Track Club. Martin was not only competing against older competition but against difficult weather conditions as well.

“I had five layers on, and I was still cold; it’s on the top of a hill, so it’s extra windy up there,” Rhode Island Head Coach Trent Baltzell said. “Right before Nick got on the track, I called [URI Assistant] Coach [Brian] Doyle and said, ‘Should I pull Nick off the track? He just ran the steeple last week. Is this smart to do?’… He looked amazing, so it’s probably a good thing that he hung in there and did his race.”

When Martin broke the record the first time, he separated himself from the competition in such a manner that he wasn’t pushed by anyone. Having your competition push you to work harder is crucial in long-distance running, according to Baltzell. So, given the more experienced competition, it didn’t surprise Martin’s coaches that he broke the record a second time.

“Breaking the school record again was something that was expected, maybe not in those conditions,” Baltzell said. “So now it’s like, ‘oh my god, what is this kid really capable of doing?’ In the proper race with good conditions, when he’s not doing all the work, because that makes a big difference too.”

Martin is only in his second outdoor season but has already claimed three of the top-five times in school history while only running the steeplechase four times. However, given his recent workload, it’s unlikely Martin will get another chance at the steeplechase until the Outdoor Atlantic 10 Conference Championship on May 3-4, according to Baltzell.

Outside of Martin, many of the Rams struggled through the rough conditions in Providence. One Ram who did stand out was first-year Maddox Jordan; in the first outdoor mile of his collegiate career, Jordan ran it in 4:13.05. It’s the Rams’ best mark of the outdoor season and five seconds shy of his personal best from the indoor season.

Part of the reason Rhode Island lacked more notable performances was the cautionary actions the coaching staff took, according to Baltzell.

“You don’t want to put your speed and power guys out there, especially your sprinters and jumpers, in poor conditions too often because it can certainly lead to injuries,” Baltzell said. “I think we’re better off having a high-intensity practice on Saturday morning than going out there on Friday and competing in adverse weather conditions. That’s what we did, and I felt like we got a lot out of Saturday’s session.”

1,305 miles south of Providence College, the other half of the Rams didn’t have much success either at the South Florida Invitational. Rhode Island had aspirations of qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 4×100-meter relay, but they’ll have to wait for their next opportunity, as Rhode Island was one of four schools to not finish the race.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pass the baton around the track for a second time in a row,” Baltzell said. “When I saw the [did not finish] pop up on the live stats, I was really worried someone had gotten hurt. It was just a missed handoff… that was probably the best-case scenario.”

Rhode Island’s most notable performance in the Sunshine State was second-year Alex Arbogast’s personal record of 21.37 seconds in the 200-meter. Arbogast has been one of the best 60-meter sprinters in the A-10 since arriving at URI two years ago; now, he’s the second-ranked runner in both the 100 and 200-meter races. Arbogast’s time placed him 15th of the 43 runners to participate in the 200-meter; if Arbogast ran this exact time at the Friar Invitational, he would have won the event by over a second.

Rhode Island now shifts its focus to the most important meet of the outdoor regular season, according to Batlzell– the University of Connecticut Northeast Challenge in Storrs, Connecticut, starting this Friday.

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