Sprinter Darnell Cummings ’14 (ED) established a personal best 6.76 in the 60m dash in helping the men’s track and field team to win its ninth indoor Big East Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, last weekend. It was the Huskies’ 12^th conference championship.

Cummings was the only Husky to win an individual title. The 4x800m relay team broke the SPIRE record in a time of 7:32.60 to take first place. The relay team members include Alex Levine ’16 (CLAS), Tim Bennatan ’13 (CLAS) and Alex Bennatan ’13 (CANR) and Alvaro Chavez ’16 (CLAS).

During the championship’s award ceremony on Sunday, the Huskies’ coaches were honored as the 2013 Indoor Big East Coaching Staff of the Year.  Head coach Greg Roy, associate head coach Rich Miller ’95 (ED) and assistant coach Nick Stenuf were recognized. It is the eighth time Roy’s staff has been honored as the top group of indoor coaches.

The men’s team heads to Boston next weekend for the IC4A Championships.

*

The women’s track and field team took second place behind Notre Dame at the Big East Championships at the SPIRE Institute, led by senior throw specialist Victoria Flowers ’13 (ED) and distance runner Shauna McNiff ’13 (CLAS).

Flowers took first place in both the weight throw and shot put. McNiff crossed the finish line first in the 5,000m run. The distance medley relay team of Brigitte Mania ’13 (CLAS), Celina Emerson ’14 (CLAS), Ana Groff ’13 (ENG) and Lindsay Crevoiserat ’15 (ED) won its event by setting a meet record time of 11:06.99.

The Huskies will continue the championship season next weekend at the New England Championships in Boston.

***

During the UConn Open last weekend at Wolf-Zackin Natatorium, senior Kyungsoo Yoon ’13 (BUS) of the men’s swimming team won the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle. The non-team scoring swimming event provides swimmers with an opportunity to qualify for the upcoming Big East Conference Championships in Indianapolis.

Other event winners for the Huskies included were freshman Mike Lennon ’16 (CLAS) in the 200-yard butterfly, junior Chris Alvanos ’14 (CLAS) in the 100-yard butterfly, junior Sean Battle ’14 (CLAS) in the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Dijuan Pigot ’16 (CLAS) in the 100-yard backstroke and sophomore Sawyer Franz ’15 (CLAS) in the 200 individual medley.

*

In the women’s section of the UConn Open, two freshmen earned first place finishes. Rachel Burke ’16 (CLAS) won the 200-yard freestyle and Marston Fries ’16 (CLAS) won the 200-yard individual medley.

***

The men’s basketball team (17-7, 7-5 Big East) hopes to get back on track on Thursday when they host Cincinnati (19-7,7-6) at the XL Center in Hartford at 7 p.m. (ESPN, UConn IMG Sports Radio Network). It will be the first of two games the teams will play as part of the Big East schedule.

The Bearcats have lost three of their last four games, most recently to Georgetown by 62-55 last Friday. Junior guard Sean Kilpatrick is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 18 points per game, followed by senior guard Cashmere Wright, who averages 13.3 points per game. Junior forward Titus Rubles leads the team in rebounding with 5.8 per game, followed by Kilpatrick, who averages 5.4 per game.

Head coach Kevin Ollie ’95 (CLAS) said he hopes the Huskies have learned from the loss to Villanova.

“They’ve got to adjust, make improvements.  We’ve got to rebound better to get [our guards] out in transition,” he said, noting that the team’s inconsistent rebounding has been somewhat balanced by good free throw shooting.

“We’ve been overcoming our rebounding issues knocking free throws down, having a good shooting percentage and low turnovers,” he said.

Huskies freshman guard Omar Calhoun was recognized for the second time this season as Big East Conference Rookie of the Week on Monday. Calhoun was honored for his performances last week in the Huskies’ upset of No. 6 Syracuse, when he scored 15 points and had 6 rebounds, and during the team’s loss to Villanova, when he led the team with 16 points and 6 rebounds.

***

Fans of the Huskies women’s basketball team continue to demonstrate their support for the team and its efforts to help fight cancer. UConn fans nationwide made generous donations to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund over the last month, including during the Baylor game on Monday night.  The Husky fan base once again proved it is the best in the country as UConn fans edged Baylor fans, $25,211.62 to $7,810, in the fundraising competition. The Kay Yow Cancer Fund received donations from UConn and Baylor fans for a combined $33,021.62.