Kingston, RI - The men's and women's track and field teams opened the New Year competing at the URI Sorlein Invitational in Kingston, RI. The women's team was led by a couple of school record performances, which propelled them to an eighth place finish out of 10 teams. The men's team scored points in one event and finished in a tie for 10^th overall.

The women's team picked up 18 total points with Diana Christopoulos and Sherilyn Nicholas leading the way. Nicholas had a pair of sixth place finishes in the 400-meter run and the high jump. She finished the 400m run with a time of 1:03.02. Finishing just over a second behind her was Arian Bass who took home eighth place honors with her time of 1:04.19.

Christopoulos had the first school record of the day in the shot put where she topped her own record, extending it to a distance of 33' 0.5”. Her better than 33 feet throw was good for sixth place and she was joined in the top-eight by Brittney Bogan who finished with a throw of 32' 5.75 inches for eighth place.

The second school record of the day came in the mile run where Stefanie Lombardi bested her own record with a new time of 5:26.08, finishing 12^th overall. She was also a member of the 4x800-meter relay team which finished eighth overall with a time of 10:41.46. Joining Lombardi on the relay team was Elizabeth Foster, Melanie Wilson and Meghan Torbik.

The Hawks 4x400-meter relay team also finished in the point column with a seventh place finish off a time of 4:20.23. The 4x400 relay team consisted of Ariana Bass, Latasha Jarrett, Kaycee Martinez and Nicholas.

The men's team had only one runner finish in the scoring column with David Slifer finishing seventh in the 400-meter run with a time of 52.63. The Hawks 4x800m relay team also scored for Hartford with an eighth place finish on a time of 8:44.34. The relay team consisted of Mike Dionne, Brandon Coleman, Nick Greenfield and Jordan Pike.

A pair of newcomers also had strong performances for Hartford. Jaimaal Munir finished ninth, just out of the points column, with his triple jump distance of 40' 5”. Dushein Ranglin had a pair of finishes just out of the top-10 with his 11^th place finish in the 200-meter dash (23.87) and a 12^th place finish in the long jump (20' 8”).

The Hawks return to action for the Reebok Indoor Games which take place in Boston on Friday, January 26.