By Jason Richland

The Northeastern women’s track team finished first with a score of 132 in the Great Dane Classic at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York, N.Y. on Sunday, 18 points better than second-place Monmouth University (115) and over 30 points better than event host University of Albany (99.5).

The Huskies have won the event for the past four years.

“It was a tremendous team performance. We didn’t have a bad event and it is very rare that I can say that,” said NU head coach Sherman Hart. “In terms of conditioning they still have a ways to go, but it was great that they were performing as well as they did.”

Senior Ahndraea Allen returned from injury and amassed 20 points for the team with first-place finishes in the 55-meter dash at 7.13 seconds and the 200-meter run at 24.92 seconds. Sophomore Shanae Henry finished sixth in the 55-meter dash at 7.32 seconds for three points.

“It was great to get Ahndraea Allen back,” Hart said. “It was a total team performance from top to bottom. I can’t say enough about how well everyone did.”

Junior Jordine Kimbrel finished second in the 400-meter dash for eight points and freshman Charity Briggs finished fifth for four points.

In the 500-meter dash only junior Erin Ballard scored for Northeastern as she finished eighth and earned one point. Junior Natalee Pennicooke was the lone finisher for NU in the 800-meter run; she finished fifth for four points.

Junior Amy Hicks finished second in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:58.04 and junior Emily Watson finished fourth in the 3000-meter run with a 10:46.48.

“Our middle and long distance is a place where people say we aren’t good enough. I wanted them to get competitive. They did that,” Hart said. “We are getting on the attack mode. We are going to get after people. The next two meets are really big meets. As long as we can stay healthy we will be very good.”

In the 5,000-meter run, senior Amber Cullen finished fourth with an 18:46.67 for five points.

In the 55-meter hurdles junior Aquila Williams-Judge took the top honors in both the preliminaries and the finals, earning another 10 points for the Huskies, but freshman Traumaine Shaw moved up from an eighth-place showing in the preliminaries to a fourth-place finish in the finals, earning five points. Junior Nubia Newsome grabbed eighth-place for one point.

Freshman Melanie Nicholas took first-place in the high jump with a leap of 1.65 meters for 10 points and freshman Alison Warren took six points with a jump of 1.60 meters.

“I don’t have freshmen, I have athletes,” Hart said. “[The freshmen] did the things I knew they were capable of doing. All of our freshmen stepped up to the plate.”

Junior Laura Chmielewski took another 10-point position with a 3.80 meter hurdle in the pole vault.

In the triple jump, senior Tina Ibraheem grabbed two points with a seventh-place finish. In the long jump, Williams-Judge was the only scorer for the Huskies as she finished fourth at 5.69 meters for five points, and in the shot put freshman Meredith O’Connor finished fifth for four points.

The Huskies’ next meet is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games held at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Men’s Track:

Senior Idris Payne was the only bright spot on a tough afternoon for the men’s team on Sunday.

Payne took first place in the 400-meter dash, but the Huskies finished ninth out of a field of 12 with a score of 52.5 at the Great Dane Classic at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York, N.Y.

Monmouth University finished first with a score of 118.

“I was pleased with the men,” Hart said. “I left some guys at home. I wanted them to get competitive. The results didn’t show it, but the team performed much better.”

Northeastern’s next meet is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games held at the Reggie Lewis Center.

See extended men’s story at www.nu-news.com.