By Jason Richland

It was a matter of two one-hundreths of a second, but a close victory in the 4×400 relay made the difference for the Northastern women’s track squad.

The Huskies took home a 73-54 victory over Harvard at Gordon Track in Allston in the first dual meet of the season for the Huskies.

The relay team took first in both relay events, winning the 4×400 meter by two hundredths of a second at 4:01.04 and winning the 4×800 meter by four seconds (9:58.20).

“We won [the 4×400 relay] by the grace of God,” said NU coach Sherman Hart. “I was switching people in the middle of the race. I told (sophomore) Alison (Warren) to put her shoes on in the middle of the race. I started replacing people when I realized how important that race was going to be. (Junior) Jourdine [Kimbrel] did a tremendous job in the last straightaway holding off the Harvard girl. If Harvard had won that relay, they had a chance to win that meet.”

The young NU squad toppled the Crimson thanks to impressive showings in the middle-distance events, Harvard’s specialty.

“We did well handling the pressure considering how young a team we have,” Hart said. “The 800 and up was key for us to stop Harvard. If that group didn’t get in there and place so well, we might have lost.”

Freshman Laura McCoskey ran a 2:18.10 in the 800-meter run to take third place, junior Natalee Pennicooke finished fourth (2:24.16) and sophomore Ashleigh Bordwell finished fifth (2:24.92).

“(Junior) Amy Hicks and Laura McCoskey did a great job. Harvard normally sweeps us in those events,” Hart said. “If they continue to do that we will be a tough team later.”

Hicks finished second in the one mile run (5:20.54) and fellow junior Amy Leedham finished fifth (5:52.37) for NU.

“My run was a little mentally difficult. We could easily have run faster and Harvard does a lot of strategic running,” Hicks said. “I could hear her breathing behind me when she passed me and I couldn’t stay behind her the last lap.”

The Huskies’ underclassmen dominated the 400-meter run with four of the top five spots as freshman Charity Briggs finished first (58.91), Warren took second (1:00.73), sophomore Ashley Wilson finished third (1:01.51) and freshman Meredith Bohne finished fifth (1:05.13).

Two freshmen took the top honors in the shot put as Patricia Harrison finished first at 12.62 meters and Meredith O’Connor finished second at 12.66 meters for the Huskies.

The upperclassmen did their part as well as Kimbrel finished first in the 60 meter dash (7.75) and second in the 200 meter dash (25.29) for the Huskies.

In the 60 meter hurdles, junior Aquila Williams-Judge took first (8.76), junior Nubia Newsome finished third (9.19) and freshman Melanie Nicholas finished fifth (9.76).

Williams-Judge also took first in the long jump at 5.38 meters. Sophomore Shanae Henry finished second (5.25 meters) and Newsome again took third with 5.11 meters.

Harvard’s Sotonye Imadojemu took first in the triple jump at 11.07 meters, but Northeastern took the remaining five spots as senior Tina Ibraheem took second (10.86 meters), senior Laura Chmielewski finished third (10.81 m), Williams-Judge took fourth (10.73 m), sophomore Melanie Vaughn took fifth and freshman Alain Ennamorati took sixth (9.81 m).

Northeastern’s next meet is the Great Dane Classic hosted by the University of Albany in New York, N.Y. on Sunday at 5 p.m.

“[The Great Dane Classic] will be a big challenge because the competition will be a lot higher all the way around,” Hicks said. “They have some good sprinters and distance runners. This week will show me where I am at.”

Northeastern has won the Great Dane Classic in each of the past three seasons.

“They are waiting for us,” Hart said. “We have won that championship three years in a row. I just know they are going to get after us.”