C A M P U S
Ruben Sanca ’09,’10: Olympic Runner Alumnus Ruben Sanca, now business manager in the Office of Student Affairs, represented his native Cape Verde Islands in the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 5,000-meter run. Unfortunately, he didn’t qualify for the final. “Just being here is a blessing,” Sanca said at the time. He especially enjoyed living in Olympic Village and being around other elite athletes. “Some of [the Olympians] have really inspiring stories about how they got here and it’s really cool to hear their stories and say ‘Hey, we’ve been through the same thing’,” he told the Boston Globe. Sanca graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business in 2009 and a master’s of business administration in 2010. Since then, he has racked up several impressive titles and appearances in three international competitions, all of which contributed to his Olympics selection. He is Cape Verde’s record-holder in the 3,000 meter (8:07.50) and marathon (2:18.43). He led the River Hawks in becoming the first nonDivision 1 school to win the cross-country New England championships. Sanca was a four-time All-American, three-time New England champ and is considered to be one of the top-five distance runners in UMass Lowell history. —RM
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RESEARCHERS HELP BOOST SPEED OF OLYMPIC BOBSLED TEAM A group of mechanical engineering students advised by Asst. Profs. David Willis and Stephen Johnston are putting their engineering skills to work helping the Israeli Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) team prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Omweg, a sled designer associated with the IBSF. “We conducted research on how to improve the aerodynamic properties of the sled,” says Richard Poillucci, who graduated in May and is now pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. —EA
The team heard about the University’s research capabilities and contacted Willis last year. The students took on the skeleton project for their senior capstone research, working closely with skeleton racer Brad Chalupski and Chad
UMASS LOWELL’S OLYMPIC HISTORY Ruben Sanca ’09, ’10 is one of several former UMass Lowell athletes to compete at the Olympic level: Former rower Shelagh Donohoe ’88, now the head rowing coach at the University of Rhode Island, was a silver medalist in the women’s four at Barcelona in 1992. Mark Kumpel ’83 was a member of the U.S. hockey team in Sarajevo in 1984. Yorick Treille ’02, Laurent Meunier ’02 and Baptiste Amar ’03 all played hockey for France in Salt Lake City in 2002. David Delfino ’88 played hockey for Italy at Albertville in 1992, Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998.
Ring of Fire
Photographer and public affairs staffer Edwin Aguirre and his wife, photographer Imelda Joson, traveled to Page, Ariz., to observe the May 20 annular solar eclipse, the first visible in the United States in nearly 18 years. An annular eclipse is when the moon covers up most of the sun except for the its outer fringe, leaving visible a ring of fire, or “annulus,” which is Latin for ring. This is one of the shots the pair took.
F A L L 2 0 1 2 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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