SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Junior Aidan Hennessy (Granby) became the first Eastern Connecticut State University athlete to win the New England Division III outdoor triple jump championship in 23 years, and junior Alyssa Sirianni (Vernon) and sophomore Adam Schimmelpfennig (Pomfret) broke their own program outdoor records in the hurdles on the third and final day of the 2023 New England Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships Saturday at Blake Track on the campus of Springfield College.
 
With a personal record mark of 46-9 ½ -- nearly three feet farther than his previous best set earlier this year --Aidan Hennessy recorded the third longest jump in program history and became only the third Eastern athlete to win the New England outdoor championship since Manny Robertson recorded a jump of 47-8 (a program record to that point) to win the triple jump title – also at Blake Track – exactly 23 years ago to the day.
 
It is the first New England title by an Eastern athlete at the championship since Lee Cattanach won at 800 meters in 2016 and went on to a national sixth-place finish and All-America honors. Prior to Cattanach, the last New England title by an Eastern athlete came in 2006, when current first-year head coach David Nicholson won the 400 and Rory Maxwell won the pole vault.
 
In a field of 13 competitors in the triple jump, Aidan Hennessy trimmed runner-up Eric Shimiyimana (46-6 ¼), a junior from Fitchburg State University. Twin brother Conor Hennessy (Granby) narrowly missed out on All-New England recognition when he placed ninth (43-7 ¾), roughly six inches behind freshman Kevin Yan of Colby College.
 
Sirianni, who broke Monica Mills' 13-year-old record in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:08.01 at the Little East Conference Championships April 29, trimmed that record Saturday with a time of 1:07.85 in a 15^th-place finish. Schimmelpfennig, who broke current assistant coach Andre Reynolds' 110 hurdles record of 15.00 with a 14.98 in Friday's preliminaries, lowered that in Saturday's final with a 14.58 that was good for fourth place in a field of 27 and earned him All-New England honors (the top eight finishers in each event earn the honor).
 
Senior Wendie Stewart (Hartford) joined Aidan Hennessy and Schimmelpfennig as an All-New England honoree when she finished sixth in a field of 29 with a mark of 126-5 in the discus. Stewart, who also threw the hammer Friday and shot put Saturday, became the first Eastern female to reap All-New England recognition in the discus since Victoria Lyon and Amy Pia placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in 1997.
 
The Eastern men totalled 17 points in the meet: Aidan Hennessy's first-place finish in the triple jump netting ten, Schimmelpfennig's fourth in the hurdles adding five and graduate student Tyler Wright's (Westport) seventh-place finish Friday in record-setting time in the 10,000 adding two. Stewart accounted for the women's three points with her sixth-place finish in the discus.
 
Eastern qualifiers compete at the New England Open Championships Friday and Saturday at Stonehill College.
 
Additional Eastern participants on Saturday:
 
Stewart was 12^th in the shot (38-7 ¾).
Schimmelpfennig was 13^th in the 400 hurdles (56.31)
Junior Thomas Stone was 14^th in the 3000 steeplechase (10:04.91)
Senior Mackenzie Dunn was 18^th in the triple jump (35-1 ¼).
Senior Ryan Escoda was 21^st  in the 5000 (16:12.00). Escoda holds the program record in that event of 15:09.06.
Senior Cory Bill was 19^th in the 400 (50.84)
In the 200, first-year runner Sam Klein was 15^th (22.36), junior Kaito Yasuda  18^th (22.39) and sophomore Eric Phongsa (Pomfret) 25^th (23.01)
The 4x800 men's and women's and women's 4x100 relays scratched. The men's 4x100 was disqualified for a lane violation.