Take that, University at Albany.
The Northeastern women’s track team cruised through another meet last weekend, taking first place in Albany’s Great Dane Classic in New York City for the second straight season. NU won with 167 points, while only Albany came within 80 points of the Huskies, scoring 114.5 points.
Monmouth (85.5), Binghamton (72.5), Temple (60), University of Maryland-Baltimore County (53), Rider (49), Lafayette (24.5), Wheeling Jesuit (15), Hunter (6) and Southern Connecticut State (5) rounded out the rest of the field.
As NU coach Sherman Hart appraised the meet as his team’s “first big test,” it’s safe to say they passed.
“We won by a lot, and I was hoping we would,” he said. “We’d had a relatively easy schedule to that point, and hadn’t really been pressured much. I knew they could do it, though, and we had an all-around great performance from everyone.”
Indeed, Northeastern punished the rest of the crowd at The Armory track in New York, winning nine of the meet’s 17 events. Transfer Aquilla Williams-Judge placed first in the long jump, 55-meter hurdles and was also a member of the winning 4×400 meter relay team on her way to earning meet MVP honors. Williams-Judge was also named the Division 1 Female New England Collegiate Track and Field Athlete of the Week for her efforts.
But it didn’t stop there. NU sophomore Jordine Kimbrel continued her impressive career with dominant wins in the 55-meter dash, as well as the 200-meter dash. Junior sprinter Ahndraea Allen, arguably the team’s most prolific runner, earned NU a first place finish in the 400 by over a second. Both Kimbrel and Allen, in addition to Williams-Judge and Whittley Jourdan ran on the 4×400 relay team, leaving second-place Monmouth in their dust by more than a second.
Northeastern, which has long been strong in sprints, isn’t solely based around the competitions shortest races this year, though.
Janel Kozlowski won the high jump with a leap of 5-7, Laura Cmielewski triumphed in the pole vault with a height of 12-3.5 and Zara Northover took first in the shot put, tossing 52-3.75 (a full 7 feet more than the rest of the field).
What’s more, Stephanie Morrison finished second in the mile, Natalee Pennicooke earned second in the 800 and Amy Hicks was the runner up in the 1,000 meters.
“We’ve always been really tough in the sprints,” Hart said, “but I don’t think I’ve ever had depth like this. I feel more comfortable this year; we can score in any event in the conference. We can do damage across the board.”
Northeastern is off until Friday Jan. 30, when they host the Adidas Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Center at 4:30. The event, from which Hart has received signs pointing to a large spectator turnout, will include America East Conference powers such as Albany and the University of New Hampshire.
“The winner of that meet will have a good lead on who is going to win the conference,” Hart said. “It’s a first class meet, far more than any other meet for us.
“We’re hoping for a great crowd and looking forward to it,” he added. “We want to show everyone what Northeastern track and field is all about.”
