The University of Rhode Island men’s track & field team opened their season by participating in three different meets and setting multiple school records this past weekend.

The season started on campus at the Mackal Field House as Rhode Island hosted the URI Heptathlon. In their first meet of the season, the Rams only featured one competitor, fifth-year Matt Santy. It was the first heptathlon that Santy competed in at the collegiate level and he said he’s been preparing for it since the start of the fall.

“He’s historically been a jumper for us,” URI Head Coach Trent Baltzell said. “He came into the office in September and asked me if he could maybe do the heptathlon… he was really enjoying the training and he was like, ‘you know what, I think I wanna complete a heptathlon.’”

A heptathlon is made up of seven events: the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000-meter run.

Santy won his first ever heptathlon by scoring 4,900 points, nearly 300 more points than second-place Brown University first-year Gabriel Thai. Santy also set a new school record in the long jump, leaping 7.46 meters. The mark beat his own record of 7.40 meters, a record he set during the New England Championship last season. It was the 10th-best heptathlon in the history of Rhode Island.

“He had an unbelievable meet especially in his two primary events,” Baltzell said. “Neither were necessarily a surprise just based off what I’ve been watching. People who don’t know him and haven’t seen him training this fall would be like, ‘wow that was such a spectacular meet,’ but if it was any less I would’ve been a little more surprised.”

Santy now holds the top two long jumps in Rhode Island history, yet he still has his eyes set on much bigger and taller goals. Santy also cleared 2.15 meters in the high jump, the second-highest high jump in Rhode Island history.

“Joe Patrone with the school record, it’s probably the hardest school record,” Santy said about Patrone’s high jump record of 2.24 meters. “Last year was my first attempt at regionals so I’d like to try and go back to push it a little further and have the opportunity to be an All-American if I play my cards right.”

Santy’s long jump currently ranks as the 10th best in the nation through the first week of the season. Santy wasn’t the only Ram to set a new school record, as fifth-year Wisconsin transfer Joe DosReis ran the mile in 4:00.28 minutes at the Boston University Invitational, good enough for 12th place. DosReis competed in the 1000-meter as well, completing it in 2:22.92 minutes. That placed him eighth, but also gave him the second-best 1000-meter time in Rhode Island history.

“He’s a bit more of a cheat code than anything,” Baltzell said. “He’s like our hired assassin essentially, he’s a great piece for us. He’s such a professional and we have so many young guys on this team and they can learn alot from him.”

It wasn’t a personal record for DosReis, as he ran the mile in 3:58 minutes prior to his arrival in Kingston. Baltzell beliveles that DosReis could represent the Rams in the mile at the NCAA Nationals if he can cut a couple seconds off his personal best.

In the 38th Alden Invitational, seven Rams found their way to the podium, including two winners. Fourth-years Mason Brubaker and Joachim Ennoo both won their events, Brubaker in the pole vault and Ennoo in the triple jump. Brubaker cleared 4.75 meters and Ennoo leaped 15.10 meters to win their events. Ennoo’s triple jump performance ranks as the sixth-best in program history.

It was quite the opening weekend for Baltzell’s Rams, who will embark on their journey to win their fifth-straight Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championship.

“It’s no secret that [winning A-10s] has been our objective for years and years and years,” Baltzell said. “We have secondary and tertiary objectives as well, but a lot of times we complete those objectives at the A-10 championship when we’re really rolling and guys get their best marks of the year… all focuses are really on those meets.”

Rhode Island will be back in action on Jan. 12 for the UMass Flagship Invitational in Boston, Massachusetts on the TRACK at New Balance.

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