By Jeff Powalisz
Win or no win, the message is quite clear: the Northeastern men’s track team is on a roll.
At the Boston University Open on Saturday, the Huskies did not run with a full roster, opting instead to use the meet as preparation for the America East Championship.
Despite this, the Huskies’ talent this year was apparent with a strong second-place showing in the field of five. With 70 points, Northeastern fell only to Albany, which finished with 81.
Boston College (42), BU (41), and Providence (19) filled out the rest of top five.
“We just wanted to run the course and make sure we stayed healthy,” said Northeastern coach Sherman Hart. “Albany was running with a lot of energy and might have wanted to get back at us.”
Northeastern was the winner of last week’s Adidas Boston Indoor Games.
Hart emphasized the meet was merely a trial run for the America East Championships next Friday and Saturday at BU (10 a.m.).
“I think most of the coaches, with the exception of Albany’s, saw this meet as a tune-up for the America East Championships and wanted to see their performers stay healthy. Albany lost a couple of athletes in the meet to injuries and we wanted to avoid that. I’m very pleased with our performances, with all things considered.”
In the winter season, the Huskies have now beaten Harvard, placed second at the Great Dane Classic in New York City, while winning the most memorable and important meet of the regular season at the Indoor Games last Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Junior thrower Derek Anderson had a remarkable day for the Huskies with first-place performances in the weight throw (57-02.75) and shot put (54-09.5). Ed Reardon added support in the weight by finishing in fourth place (41-03.75) while Dappo Alli (46-04.25) and Reardon (41-10.50) were second and sixth, respectively, in the shot put.
“As far as the meet goes, it wasn’t ultra-competitive,” Anderson said. “I’m satisfied with my performance though and it’ll be a steppingstone for later meets.”
Two other key events for the Huskies were the high jump and pole vault, where they dominated the leader boards.
Chad Barboza (6-05.5) was the overall winner in the high jump, while fellow Huskies Akil Alexander (5-11.5) and Matt Kowalski (5-09.75) were fifth and sixth.
Michael Couch, Ryan Cahill and Aaron Hill swept the top three slots in the pole vault, grabbing a quick 13 points for the team with their respective finishes of 15-09, 15-03, and 15-03.
In the 55 meter hurdles, Bismark Osei (6.59), Obaro Emenike (6.65) and Summit Sikka (6.72) gained points for the team with second, fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively.
In the 400, freshmen Conrad Dalton and Roscell Lopez-Pitts came up big for the Huskies with key second and third place finishes of 49.61 and 49.88, just behind winner Aggrey Morris of Albany (48.76).
“On this team there is a lot of talent for the most part,” Anderson said. “We’ve been trying to develop not so much our talent but our competitiveness and the way we approach our meets. We try to bring out our best.”
In the 55-meter hurdles, Peter Jasmin had perhaps the most memorable win of the day as his time of 7.71 outlasted all other runners. Albany’s Paul Roche was second (7.79) and ahead of Husky Matt Valuk who finished at 7.95.
“The person who did really well for us was Peter Jasmin,” Hart said of the junior. “He ran exceptionally well.”
Jose Fernandez was third in the 500 for Northeastern, securing another three points with a time of 1:06.37, while Sikka gained one more with a fifth-place finish in the 200 (22.62). Tom Pratt finished in the top five of the 800, running strong at 1:54.90 (fifth) and adding a point to the Husky total.
Valuk, Lopez-Pitts, Christian Tirella, and Dalton, all freshmen, made up the 4×400 team at the event and ended up second behind Albany with a time of 3:19.27. Albany pulled ahead at 3:15.03.
Junior sprinter Idris Payne and Anderson will be in New York City this weekend at the Armory College Meet, a meet that could possibly push both Huskies into the nationals. The meet takes place on Friday and Saturday at the 169th Street Armory.
The Northeastern women’s track team also had an impressive weekend, winning the Greater Boston Championship held at Harvard Saturday.
The Huskies defended their title by scoring 176 points and powering past Harvard (140), MIT (63), Brandeis (50) and Bentley (11).
Northeastern was paced for the second week in a row by the field events, in which they won the high jump, swept first through third in the pole vault, had four of the top six finishers in the long jump, third in the triple jump and two of the top shot putters.
Janel Kozlowski won the high jump, while Laura Chmieliewski, Courtney MacLaren and Jen Curato sunk the competition in the pole vault.
In the long jump, Shanae Henry and Wittly Jourdan took first and second, respectively, while Nubia Newsome and Tina Ibraheem also scored points for the Huskies.
Jess Titus and Krystina Valdez placed in the shot put as well for NU.
Henry also posted a victory in the 60-meter dash, winning with a time of 7.87 seconds, and a second-place time in the 200-meter dash (26.10).
Davianne Brown, Amy Hicks, Atephanie Morrison, Wittly Jourdan and the 4×400 meter relay team were also winners for the Huskies.
Brown won the 400 (1:00.04), Hicks took first in the 800 (2:17.51), Morrison beat out everyone in the mile (5:10.79) and Jourdan took home top honors in the 60-meter hurldes (8.90).
Next week, both the men’s and women’s teams will head to Boston University for the America East Championship meet.
The men finished third last year, while the women took home the trophy.
— News Staff writer Jack Weiland contributed to this report.
