BOSTON, Mass. – Five individuals qualified for post-season competition and two broke records when a handful of members of the Eastern Connecticut State University track & field program opened the 2023/24 indoor season at the Suffolk University Relays at The Track at New Balance Saturday.
 
In a meet which featured competitors from all three divisions,  senior brothers Aidan and Conor Hennessy (Granby) qualified for the New England Division III Championships in the triple jump, as did senior Cory Bill (Mansfield) at 400 meters, and juniors Adam Schimmelpfennig (Pomfret) in the 60 hurdles and Eric Phongsa (Pomfret) at 200 meters.
 
In addition to the New England qualifiers, sophomore Sam Klein (Shelton) and first-year Division I junior transfer Saige Kirkland (Windsor) broke the program's men's and women's records, respectively, at 300 meters.
 
Aidan Hennessy, the 2023 New England outdoor champion in the triple jump, was second in the triple jump (45-1 1/2/13.75m) in a field of 18 Saturday behind champion Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah (45-3/13.70m) of Division I University of Hartford, with Conor Hennessy fourth (42-8 1/4/13.01m).
 
Bill was clocked at 51.17 in a tenth-place finish among 36 competitors in the 400, with All-New England hurdler and Eastern recordholder (8.35) Schimmelpfennig clocking an 8.48 for a third-place finish among 29 in the 60 hurdles after winning his heat and qualifying for the final with a time of 8.52 in the preliminaries. Phongsa placed eighth at 200 meters in a field of 96 in a time of 22.68.
 
In the 300, Klein was eighth among 33 in a record time of 35.98, with Kirkland clocking a record 43.58 in a 12^th-place finish in her first meet at Eastern. The previous men's record of 37.8 was set by Archie Joseph on Dec. 13, 2005, with the old women's mark of 45.8 set by Beth Littlefield on December 30, 2002, both marks coming at Brown University.
 
Others competing at the meet were senior Alyssa Sirianni (Vernon) and junior Ashley Gentile (Hebron). Sirianni, the program's outdoor record-holder in the 400 hurdles (1:07.85), was timed in 10.10 in the preliminaries of the 60 hurdles and did not advance to the final. Gentile was 14^th among 44 at 400 meters in a time of 1:04.72.
 
Eastern closes out first-semester competition this weekend at both the Southern Connecticut State University Art Kadish Elm City Challenge at the Wesleyan University Invitational.