If Ahndraea Allen doesn’t watch it, breaking records and winning championships will become as old hat as getting the mail. Or even worse, it could get as pedestrian as winning races for the superb Northeastern junior.
Allen set her second school record of the season, and the fifth of her career, while her mates helped toy with the rest of the America East crowd, winning the crown with 179 points, compared to second-place University at Albany (128) and third-place University of New Hampshire (109 points).
Allen, who was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Performer, personally accounted for 30 Husky points. The Roselle Park, N.J. native took first in the 55-meter dash (7.06 seconds), the 200 (24.15) and the 400-meter dash (55.70).
But for coach Sherman Hart, the more impressive performance came from the team as a whole. After a slow start through one day of competition in which Northeastern held a slim eight-point lead, his crew stormed back on day two for the final tally.
“They ran extremely well, I have no complaints at all,” the 16-year NU coach said. “Ahndraea had a great meet, but I just think overall it was a great team performance. For every event she won, I had somebody right behind her.
“Friday was really rocky, and we weren’t performing well,” he added. “They just turned it up on Saturday. We talked about it as a team and decided they were going to go out and take care of business. Saturday was a fun day, overall. We had a team meeting and I told them they need to turn it up, come out and be themselves. Come back and be Northeastern tomorrow. Friday we didn’t show any indications that we were the team that has been running through everybody. We were kind of flat. I don’t know what they did Friday night, but whatever it was, it worked.”
Allen was butressed by sophomore Jordine Kimbrel and freshman Shanae Henry in the 55, who finished second and third, respectively. In the 200, Kimbrel took second with a time of 24.29, and Ashley Wilson finished seventh in 25:73. Wilson earned Northeastern points in the 400 as well, taking second place behind Allen, albeit by more than two seconds.
In the shotput, NU sophomore Zara Northover set a meet record with a toss of 52’9.5. Nortover, who Hart felt was robbed of the Most Outstanding Field Athlete award, also placed second in the weight throw.
“She got robbed. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Hart said. “They gave it to the girl from Vermont, but Zara broke a record in the shotput that moved her up to 14th in the country. They didn’t want to give us everything. That would have meant that the women would walk out with every award they had. How can you not give an MVP to someone that breaks a conference record and moves up in the nationals?”
Hart downplayed his own award as Most Outstanding Coach of the meet, and with good reason. The repeat AE Championship coach estimated his trophy case from various America East and New England Championship meets at 35-40.
“To be honest, the most important thing is that we win as a team,” he said while laughing. “That’s my award. That’s enough for me. I really don’t even pay attention to it when it happens, it’s just one more thing to go into the closet. The closet’s been getting full.”
Junior Laura Cmielewski set yet another record for the Huskies when she took first place in the pole vault with a height of 12’3.5. Fellow junior Courtney MacLaren took second in the event.
Other top Northeastern finishes came in the 55-meter hurdles, where Aquilla Williams-Judge, Wittly Jourdan and Nubia Newsome landed in first, fifth and sixth place, respectively. In the high jump, Nicole Parker and Janel Kozlowski took second and third.
The Huskies got a strong contribution from the distance events as well. Natalee Pennicooke took sixth in the 500-meter run (1:18.22), Stephanie Morrison placed seventh in the mile (5:07.31) and Erin Ballard earned a sixth-place finish in the 800-meter run with a mark of 2:15.89. Amy Hicks scored in the 1,000 meter run as well, finishing eighth with a time of 3:02.5.
Next up for NU is the New England Championship meet, held at Boston University on Feb. 27-28.
