Woe is Ahndraea Allen.
Despite the fact that coach Sherman Hart “pulled back” the Northeastern women’s track team last week, the junior who normally sprints was forced to run the 800, a race she is less than fond of.
“She hated me. She absolutely hated me, but that’s OK,” said Hart.
“We came off a long indoor (season), we ran a heavy meet last week, we’re about to run another one this week when we go back to South Florida. So I just kind of pulled back and gave them the opportunity to get some rest. I knew going into that meet that we could’ve won the majority of events very easily.”
Plus, as Hart said, “there’s no need beating on people you know you can beat.”
More than anything, though, Hart was just trying to get his returning America East champs out under the sun.
“What I was really looking to do was to try to win against Mother Nature and get outside. That’s what’s beating us right now, Mother Nature is absolutely killing us,” he said. “That was only our third time outside all year. We were just trying to get outside, get acclimated to the outdoor facility because it’s much longer. You have a different perspective when you’re running outdoor as opposed to indoor, so, bottom line, we were just trying to get them used to outdoors. Mother Nature did cooperate Saturday, and helped us out. Being a New England school in outdoor season is tough.”
In addition, Hart wanted to get his crew back to the basics that earned them indoor titles in conference and in the New England Championship Meet.
“We wanted to give them some endurance to work on their stamina. At this part in the season we’re actually going back to basics. As (Allen) told me today, ‘Jesus, you’re trying to kill us,'” he said. “Through that meet and practice, we’re going back to doing the things that we did at the very beginning to make us successful, so we can build back into having a great season.”
Northeastern earned firsts in the 400, 800, 100-meter hurdles, high jump and shot put. Jordine Kimbrel won the 400 by more than a second, Amy Hicks took first in the 800 (seven seconds ahead of Allen), Wittly Jourdan beat the field in the 100-hurdles by just four tenths of a second, Nicole Parker won the high jump and sophomore thrower Zara Northover easily outdistanced the competition in the shot put, winning by more than four feet. The Huskies also placed first in the 4×100 meter relay.
Hart hopes the successful meet is just the beginning of yet another stellar outdoor campaign.
“I have real high goals and expectations for both programs. I think that both programs, if the right team shows up for us, that we can win both the men and women in the conference,” he said. “We also could probably win the men and women in New Englands and we’re definitely going to try to win the ECAC’s that we gave up indoor. Then I told my staff that I’m looking to try to get in the top ten in the Regionals this year.”
Up first, though, is the South Florida Invitational in Tampa, Fla.
“I looked at the Web today, so I understand it’s going to be 80 degrees. That’s the one thing I’m looking for first, but I’m really looking for good performances,” Hart said. “I told them we have to take advantage of the good weather when we get there. We might get back here and not see (nice weather) again for awhile. I’m telling my team that we need to go down and step up to competition and get some real good performances to put us in good position for all four championships that hopefully we’ll be in.”
Saturday’s meet will start at 10 a.m.
