She might not grab the headlines, she might not smash the records like some of her teammates, but when it comes right down to it, Wittly Jourdan is an indispensable member of the Northeastern women’s track team.
Jourdan placed fifth in the 100-meter hurdles and ran on the second place 4×400-meter relay team for the Huskies last week at the South Florida Invitational in Tampa, Fla. She was one of the few NU runners to post strong results at the meet, and has quietly (and unselfishly) taken a back seat to bigger names during the America East Conference title runs of the past four years.
“I think Wittly has been, going back two years, major in our championship drive. She, along with Amber, really kicked us off in New Hampshire (two years ago, AE outdoor championship meet), by running in four or five events and placing in three or four,” said coach Sherman Hart. “I think she’s real key to the team, both on and off the track. Off the track, she’s a good team leader, keeps everybody loose and always got jokes. When it seems like its critical, she loosens people up.
“She’s a senior, and she performs as such,” he added. “I always say Wittly is a big-meet performer, she might not do anything the rest of the year during all the small meets, but when it comes to a big meet, she’s huge. She’s a championship performer, strictly.”
For thrower Zara Northover, the meet was somewhat of an odd experience. While Northover usually dominates in the shot put, she finished seventh in the event.
“I think that was good. She was tired and didn’t seem to be there this weekend,” Hart said. “I think that kind of gave her a renewed attitude that she’s looking forward to seeing that group again. I know the next time we’ll see them will be at the Penns or regionals, which will be a great day because now she’s going to really go after them. So I actually feel bad for the rest of them.”
As a team, Hart felt his group left something to be desired.
“I thought we did OK, but I knew we could have done a lot better,” he said. “I think a couple things (contributed to that), first of all that we ran in the evening under the lights, which is something we’ve never really done. I think running two evenings in a row threw us off schedule wise, and then also it was much chillier at night than we would’ve liked to have. I think that we came down with the perspective of running in 75-80 and we were running in 50-55, I think I need to do a better job of preparing them if we have another evening meet. The teams from Florida and that area seemed to be used to that anyway. We really got thrown off in terms of scheduling and having them mentally prepared because they seemed really tired at that point.”
Still, that isn’t all bad for Hart’s crew.
“I think that’s something we need, because we’ve grown to that level. I think even with the mediocre performances we were having, we still placed in a lot of events,” Hart said. “I think we have grown to that point where we have to start looking to expand our horizons in terms of the program.
“I’m getting calls from Alabama and other places with people asking ‘Can you come to our meet?’ Which is nice to be able to turn people down, we don’t have money to go anyway, but it’s nice to be invited,” he said. “We were supposed to go to Tennessee this weekend, and the coach called me a couple times and I told him, ‘my athletes are tired and we really don’t have the money.’ And he said, ‘Well, if you told me earlier, we probably could’ve worked out something for you and kind of helped you along.’ It’s nice to have people recognize that you’re running well enough that they want you at their meet.”
Other quality finishes for NU came in the 400 and 100-meter hurdles, where Ahndraea Allen and Aquilla Williams-Judge secured a pair of third-place finishes, respectively. Nicole Parker had a strong showing in the high jump, taking fifth and Williams-Judge earned sixth in the long jump.
Next up for the Huskies is the Brown Invitational, where most of the women’s team will compete (minus Allen). The meet starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
